Rejecting the insinuations as baseless that the army would be in control of the electoral exercise, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh yesterday claimed that the ECP had full powers and was not under pressure from any quarter.
The ECP had determined rules of the game, he said while justifying its decision to deploy the army in and outside the polling stations.
The army would work strictly in accordance with a code of conduct prepared for them, he said, adding that the army too had declared that they would work on ECP’s directions.
He said the presiding officers concerned would be in charge of polling stations while the armed forces and police personnel would assist them.
He said it would be for the presiding officer to start and end polling, declare results and transmit results to the ECP.
He said district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs) had been drawn from the judiciary and the polling staff had been taken from amongst federal and provincial
government employees.
He said a total of 800,000 security personnel including those from the army and police would be deployed at polling stations across the country.
He expressed the confidence that the elections would be held in a free, fair and transparent manner in accordance with the constitutional mandate of
the ECP.
On the day of polling, he said, the result transmission system (RTS) would be functional. The results received through the RTS would be shared with the nation through
Pakistan Television, he added.
He said all institutions were co-operating with the ECP.
Yaqoob said the ongoing installation of security cameras at highly sensitive polling stations would be completed before
July 25.
While describing the 8,300 short message service for voters’ information as a great success, the ECP secretary told reporters that over 7mn people had used this service in past three days.
The ECP was completely
impartial, he added.
He also dispelled the impression that the ECP was playing the role of a silent spectator amid attempts aimed at denying level-playing field to candidates. He said the ECP wrote two letters to the caretaker Punjab chief minister over the recent crackdown against PML-N workers.
He said the ECP had also intervened when Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s caravan was stopped in Punjab.
Besides, the ECP took immediate notice of the firing on former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s son, he said, recalling that the matter had been taken up with the authorities concerned. “The chief election commissioner had written a letter to the National Accountability Bureau chairman.”
He announced that on the recommendation of the interior ministry, the ECP had summoned three Milli Muslim League (MML) candidates, whose names were on the UN watch list, and asked them to clear their position before the commission.
Workers sort out ballot boxes before dispatching them to polling stations ahead of general election, at the Election Commission of Pakistan office in Peshawar yesterday.
