Elections commission orders ROs to reject applications seeking other parties' symbols

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) directed returning officers on Saturday to reject applications from party members seeking the election symbol of another party, Aaj News reported.

“A contesting candidate, before seeking allotment of a prescribed symbol, shall file a declaration before the Returning Officer about his affiliation with a particular political party, if any, along with a certificate from the political party showing that he is that party’s candidate from the constituency,” the ECP said in its order.

Many applications were submitted, according to the electoral watchdog, to break the law, mislead the Election Commission, and in flagrant violation of the affidavit already given with their nomination papers.

The ECP said that candidates needed to file an affidavit to verify an oath form as well as prove their affiliation with the political party whose election symbol they were seeking in their applications.

It continued by saying that candidates who belonged to a party and ran for office using another party's electoral emblem violated the Electoral Act of 2017.

The development follows PTI's directive to its candidates to submit their PTI-Nazriati tickets with the 'batsman' symbol to their respective Returning Officers.

"Whoever has PTI-Nazriati tickets should immediately submit them and take any kind of hindrance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and high courts," stated PTI's official account in a post on X.

The PTI issued the directives as the Supreme Court considered the ECP's appeal against the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) decision to restore the "bat" as the party's election symbol.