ECP committed to educate general public regarding electoral process: ECP Spokesperson

ISLAMABAD: Spokesperson of Election Commission of Pakistan Altaf Ahmed has said that ECP was committed to educate the general public regarding electoral process because the maximum participation of people was vital to strengthen the democracy in the country.

Talking to Radio Pakistan, he said that Election Commission of Pakistan had agreed to extend the polling time by one hour in order to facilitate the general public and ensure the maximum participation of voters.

He said that ECP had given clear directions regarding the implementation of code of conduct. The monitoring teams would report the violation of code of conduct and violators would have to bear the consequences, he added.

Altaf said that polling stations were categorized as normal, sensitive, highly sensitive and 20,000 polling stations had been categorized as sensitive by ECP.

He said that we were highly concerned with the safety of the voters, polling officers and other staff. "ECP is committed to conduct election in safe, transparent and conducive manner."

He mention that the reason to extend the polling time was to facilitate the voters and maximize the election turnover.

To a question, he said that a detailed code of conduct was issued to the media to focus on the awareness campaign of the voter to include maximum people in electoral process.

It is compulsory to hold an Original National Identity Card to cast the vote, no one would be allowed to cast vote on the photocopy of the ID card. Voter with an expired ID card was also allowed to cast the vote, he added.