Preparing for polls: K-P election commission to form supervisory bodies

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) election commission has decided to form monitoring committees to supervise general elections in the province.

According to an election commission official, the objective behind these committees is to pave way for transparent elections. In addition to cameras, the committee members would be provided other equipment to help supervise.

“These bodies would only comprise election commission staff,” the official said, adding the election material has been sent for printing.

“To increase the turnout, a voter-education campaign has been launched,” the official explained. In the last general elections, the turnout was 44%.

He revealed the campaign started in all districts and tribal areas with local government, social welfare, NGOs, media, and female and minorities’ representatives taking part.

A voter’s list issued on July 31 reflected an increase of 1.5 million potential voters in the province.



More than 10.6 million people from K-P cast their vote in the previous general elections, while over 12.1 million have registered to vote in the next polls.

After the transgender were assigned national identification cards making them eligible to vote, 300 were added to the electoral roll in the province.

Over 12,000 polling stations and 34,220 polling booths will be set up across K-P.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2013.