Preparation under way for the LG polls. ─ DawnNews screengrab Islamabad, which now has a population of around two million, has been divided into 50 union councils for the polls.
As many as 676,795 registered voters will be electing local councillors and UC chairpersons and vice-chairpersons, who will go on to sit on the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC), Dawn Newspaper reported .
According to the ECP, 2,407 candidates are taking parts in these elections. There are 972 independents, 506 of PML-N, 479 of PTI, 164 of Jamaat-i-Islami and 81 of the PPP.
The ECP has set up a control room to register voter complains. The control room can be contacted at 051-9210816, 9210817, and 9210818.
All government departments, including federal ministries in Islamabad Capital Territory, will close at 2:00pm this afternoon to enable government employees to cast their votes.
The start of voting at certain polling stations was delayed as polling materials reached the stations late, DawnNews reported.
Other reasons reported for the delay in polling are a lack of training provided on how to vote, misprinting of candidate's symbols on ballot papers and provision of dry stamp pads.
Muddasir Rizvi, who leads the election observer group Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), earlier told Dawn that according to the rules, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should have conducted mock exercises to build voter capacity and, more importantly, ascertain the average amount of time it would take an individual to cast a vote.
"To the best of my knowledge, this was not done. But given the kind of arrangements that the ECP claims to have in place, it shouldn’t take each voter more than four to five minutes to cast their vote," he had said.
Rizvi, who is a seasoned election observer, explained that there will be six presiding officers, who will each issue one ballot paper.
They will make multiple entries on each ballot paper and its counter foil. Each voter will cast six ballot papers, and each ballot requires the presiding officer to record voters’ name, CNIC No., signature, thumb impression. In addition, they will have to sign and stamp both ballot and counterfoil. This means that there are at least nine data points per ballot paper.
The process for each voter requires officers to make around 50 entries on separate ballot papers and counterfoils.