Almost all the general elections in the country in the recent past have been followed by accusations of rigging by the losers, but this time the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is confident of having plugged all the loopholes.

A senior ECP official told Dawn that the drawing up of accurate electoral rolls was the first major achievement in this direction, pointing out that multiple and duplicate entries had been removed and that “one person, one CNIC and one vote is going to make a big difference”. He claimed that the possibility of missing the name of any CNIC-holder or the registration of a voter at two different places had been eliminated.

According to this official, electoral rolls available with all the presiding officers have photographs of all the voters, thus leaving no room for impersonation. The presiding officers will also obtain the thumb impressions of voters using magnetised ink. “Even if a polling station is taken over and bogus votes are cast, those indulging in the exercise will easily be traced through the biometric record,” he remarked.

Presiding officers have been given the powers of a first-class magistrate for three days, he said, explaining that this will enable them to hold a summary trial and punish on the spot anyone found to be interfering with the electoral process.

In terms of security, the official said that the presiding officer will have telephone numbers of the security personnel on duty, and in case the situation spiralled out of control, he would halt the polling process and inform the relevant returning officer.

Giving the assurance that there was no chance of ghost polling stations, he pointed out that “voters can use the 8300 messaging service to find out the exact location of their polling stations”. The official added that security cameras are to be installed at sensitive polling stations, wherever possible, and arrangements will be made for video recording at others.

He claimed that the code of conduct setting the rules of the game for political parties and contesting candidates was no mere piece of paper. “It will be implemented in letter and in spirit and any violations will be dealt with strictly and could entail the disqualification of the candidate,” he said, adding that for the first time, the code of conduct includes the offices of the president and governors as public-office holders barred from visiting any constituency or announcing any development scheme.

The official said that more than 400 monitoring teams with professional cameramen would be keeping an eye on the various aspects of the electoral exercise and documenting any violation of the code of conduct. As for the ballot papers, special paper with unique security features, which is not available on the market, was being used. He added that the army will provide security cover during the transportation of the ballot papers.

In this official’s view, the ECP had done everything within its means to provide a level playing field to the contesting candidates and had ordered the transfer of a number of officials after receiving complaints against them about favouring a particular candidate. He also pointed out that the ECP had amended the nomination forms and the candidates were now required to submit increased documentation with their nomination forms including details about their income and tax returns, children studying abroad and foreign visits undertaken during the past three years.

The official said that all the details of the candidates along with the reports by the relevant departments had been placed on the ECP’s website and if the concealment of any relevant fact was proved at any stage, anyone could be disqualified. Further, he explained that under the code of conduct, candidates are bound to open dedicated accounts for election expenditure and provide details of the costs incurred by them to the returning officer on a weekly basis.

These measures have been welcomed by the political parties, but not without reservations. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former minister of the state for information Tariq Azeem, for example, observed that while he appreciates the steps, perfection in the system requires persistent effort. “There are still many loopholes that can be exploited,” he said, referring as a “typical” example to the irrelevant questions put to candidates by returning officers to decide whether they met the requirements under Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution. He added that there was no uniformity in the procedure.

Senator Kamil Ali Agha of the PML-Quaid also said that there was still a long way to go. “All these steps will be meaningless unless the issue of fake ballot papers is effectively addressed,” he remarked, saying that unused ballot papers that are provided to presiding officers have never been accounted for. “The final count of these unused ballot papers should be carried out through the army,” he proposed. Mr Agha claimed that in the past ballot papers have been sold and this will happen in the upcoming general elections as well, pointing out that thousands of fake ballot papers had recently been seized in the Chak Darra area of lower Dir.