The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday started preparation to hold Senate polls on 48 seats.

As per details, the preparations will be completed in three phases as schedule of Senate polls is likely to be unveiled in the second week of February.

Initially, training sessions are being conducted for concerned officials for the polls. Meanwhile, training of the polling staff will be completed in two phases.

The three-day training of first batch will start from next week on Saturday, Sunday and Monday which will be conducted by master trainers of ECP.

The second batch of the polling staff will join the training session from Tuesday to Thursday in next week.

Senior officers of all four provinces will also get training.

Furthermore, Deputation of returning officers and polling staff for the upcoming Senate polls will also begin in coming month.

The voting will be conducted on the basis of proportional representation and ‘single transferable vote’.

However, it is still undecided for holding the voting through secret or open ballot until a verdict came out on proceedings underway for the presidential reference.

The polls will be organised for 48 seats in the Upper House as legislators will vote for the candidates contesting on 11 seats each in Punjab and Sindh, 12 each in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and two in Islamabad.