KARACHI: With elections less than a fortnight away, the returning officers concerned have received almost 0.5 million applications, including over 200,000 for the National Assembly, seeking postal ballots, posting about a 100 per cent increase in such requests for the NA seats compared to the 2018 elections.

A senior ECP official told Dawn that 449,287 people applied for postal ballots to cast their votes in the general elections to elect national and provincial assembly lawmakers.

The total number of applications for the National Assembly stood at 206,533, with Punjab accounting for 73,586 applications. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stands at 72,769, followed by Balochistan with 37,758 and Sindh with 24,420 applications.

Though the numbers of postal ballots in the 2018 elections were not shared by the ECP, a report of Gallup Pakistan titled ‘Analysis of Pakistan Postal Ballots’ claimed that in the previous polls, the total number of postal ballots for the National Assembly stood at 107,995. “In 2018, the total number of votes cast from postal ballots amounts to around 107,995 from the four provinces and [ex] FATA,” it added.

For the four provincial assemblies, the ECP official said 242,754 applications had been received for the upcoming polls. “Once an application is received, the returning officer is obligated to send a ballot paper and envelope to the voter by post, in accordance with the Elections Act 2017,” said the ECP official.

Officials say over 200,000 applications received this time, as compared to just more than 100,000 in 2018

Adiala and Karachi jails

From Adiala Jail, 145 prisoners, including three senior politicians, would cast their votes via postal ballots after their applications were formally sent to the relevant authorities. Among those who approached the prison administration to exercise their right to vote also included Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. It may be noted that PTI founder Imran Khan and his key aide Shah Mehmood Qureshi are also incarcerated in Adiala Jail.

A jail official said that the applications and details of all the prisoners who wanted to cast their votes through a postal ballot were being sent to the district returning officer. “One day before the voting, polling stations and polling booths will be set up in the jail for prisoners to cast their votes,” he said.

“All the votes and materials in sealed packets will be sent to the district returning officer under strict security. The counting and results of postal ballots will be compiled by the Election Commission of Pakistan itself.”

In Karachi, though the exact number of applications from the Central Prison was not shared by the authorities, a jail official said that “hundreds of inmates” had applied to cast their votes through postal ballots.

“We have forwarded hundreds of applications to the relevant DROs in 38 districts across the country from the facility in Karachi before the expiry of the deadline,” said Central Prison DSP Ammad Chandio.

Imran Ayub in Karachi, Iftikhar A. Khan in Islamabaad and Mohammad Asghar in Rawalpindi contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2024