PPP asks CEC to publish final lists of polling stations prior to polls

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has written a letter to the chief election commissioner Pakistan to publish final lists of the polling stations at least 30 days before the polling day.

The letter is written by In-charge Central Election Cell of PPP Senator Taj Haider to the Chief Election Commissioner Pakistan on Thursday.

According to the letter, “The District Returning Officer may, after hearing the objections or considering the suggestions, if any filed with him and making such summary enquiry as he may deem necessary, make alterations in the list of polling stations as may be required and shall, at least 30 days before the polling day, publish in the official Gazette and on the website of the Commission the final list of polling stations of each constituency in the district.”

“We wish to point out that according to the above quoted Section the final lists of polling stations in every constituency had to be published in the official Gazette and put on the website of the Commission at least 30 days before the polling day. Although the Press Release of the Commission dated 6th January 2024 invites ‘hearing the objections or considering the suggestions’ on the initial polling stations lists, very little time has been given for doing so and due publicity to this provision has not been given for the knowledge of general public and the time of publishing the final lists has been reduced from 30 days to 15 days before the polling day.”

The letter further described as, “the performance of DROs and ROs on the stage of scrutiny of nomination papers has been unsatisfactory thus heavily overloading the work of Election Tribunals. Your honour may be pleased to extend the last date of filing ‘objections and suggestions’ and to instruct the Returning Officers to expedite the process of alterations given in Section 59 (8) (Recording of reasons, prior approval of the Commission and notice to the candidates), since ‘very exceptional circumstances’ already exist due to the delay in the entire process of finalising the lists of polling stations.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024