EC to send ballots to all constituencies by Saturday: EC Secy

Senior Secretary of the Election Commission (EC) Akhtar Ahmed has said that ballot papers for the upcoming 13th Parliamentary Election and referendum have already reached in 116 constituencies across the country and others will get it by Saturday (7 Feb).

“We have already sent ballot papers to the returning officers of 116 parliamentary constituencies and will be able to send the remaining ballots by Saturday (7 Feb), Insha’Allah,” he said.

The EC secretary provided this information to the media during a briefing at the Election Commission Secretariat at Agargaon on Thursday.

Regarding the meeting between the head of the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission and the chief election commissioner, the EC secretary said that they wanted to know about the overall election preparations.

The EU team also wanted to know about the plans and preparedness of the law enforcement agencies, he said.

“We shared whatever preparations we have taken and information about sending ballot papers to the constituencies,” he said.

“The EU team was mainly curious about the preparations and the progress of the 12 February election,” the EC Secretary said.

He said that it is natural to ask why there was such a delay in sending ballot papers. This is because in several places we had to reprint ballots. Due to last-minute reinstatement of some candidates and court orders, ballots in some areas had to be reprinted or changed. For this reason, we need time to deliver all ballots by Saturday,” he explained.

Regarding the deployment plan of the law enforcing agencies, he said they were informed that the army would be deployed in the ground for seven days, Ansar members for eight days and that police are already deployed. The army is also already in the field.

The EC secretary said that 1,050 executive magistrates are being deployed. They will remain in the field from 8 February to 14 February, mainly to conduct mobile courts.

Deployment details of judicial magistrates have not yet been finalised. Judicial magistrates will be deployed from 8 to 14 February and will remain in the field for seven days.

In addition, the Electoral Inquiry and Adjudication Committees are already active in the field.

He further said that election campaigning by political parties will end at 7:30am on 10 February, which is 48 hours before voting begins.

Regarding postal voting, the EC Secretary said that 107,168 postal ballots have already reached to the returning officers across the country. A total of 3,79,924 postal ballots have been issued nationwide. Postal ballots will be accepted until 4:30pm on 12 February.

A total of 6,091 jail inmates were registered for postal voting. Voting in prisons began on Tuesday (3 Feb) and will continue until Saturday (7 Feb).