Election preparations: With ballot boxes in hand, ECP to start training poll staff

Commission will begin training over 700,000 officials from government departments.

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is putting the final touches to its preparations for the upcoming general elections. And one of those tasks was to procure over 500,000 ballot boxes and all relevant materials.

From Monday onwards, the commission will begin the process of training over 700,000 officials from government departments, whose services will be employed during the election.

District returning officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers from every district will undergo a four-day training programme during the first phase, Afzal Khan, additional secretary for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), told reporters. The commission has also prepared training manuals and guidance materials for officials of different levels who will be involved in the election process.

According to Afzal Khan, the commission has procured the required number of ballot boxes and 80% of the “non sensitive” material required. This includes over 500,000 transparent ballot boxes, their seals, screens to be used for privacy and stationery items.

Financial matters

Already, the commission has provided Rs500 million to relevant departments to purchase special paper to be used for ballots. They will be using ‘non-market’ paper with special security features to avoid any ballot paper duplication, the official said.

The ECP has sought Rs .6 billion from finance ministry, out of which only Rs.2 billion have been released. ECP sources said that the commission has summoned top officials of the finance ministry on March 7 for a meeting to discuss the release of the pending funds.



Nomination forms

The law minister will also be meeting with the commission on March 6 to finalise the new format of the nomination forms. The commission has decided to add new columns in the nomination forms to obtain the financial history and tax details of all candidates.

Since the format of the forms comes under the rules of business, they do not require any legislation. However, approval will be required from the president, an ECP official said. Once the format is finalised, the law ministry will send it to the president for final approval.



Election tribunals

The commission has also decided to employ the services of retired judges of the high court as permanent election tribunals in order to expedite the disposal of election-related cases. The commission will be appointing five tribunals in Punjab and three each in other provinces. Buildings are being hired for offices of these tribunals, the official said.

Earlier, these cases were dealt in the high courts, where, due to the burden of workload, the election petitions remained pending for years. In some cases, these petitions were not decided during the tenure of an assembly. It is being proposed that the new tribunals be given a deadline of 120 days to decide all election petitions.



MQM assets details

A day after the ECP issued a list of parties that need to fulfill the criteria to apply for election symbols, the Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) submitted the missing statement of its accounts for the year 2010.

The law requires that a party has to submit details of its assets and accounts every year, and a certificate that shows that it has held intra-party elections, in order to be eligible for the polls.

The ECP has always been very lenient in application of this law, which has become a mere cosmetic exercise.

The ECP issued a press release announcing that because the MQM has submitted the pending consolidated statement of accounts,  it is now eligible to apply for a symbol in the elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2013.