PEC completes survey of buildings to be used for polling stations

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The Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC) Sono Khan Baloch said on Tuesday that a survey to identify permanent buildings to be used for the purpose of polling stations had been completed.
While addressing a press conference, Baloch told that about 80 percent of those buildings were suitable to be declared as permanent polling stations while the remaining 20 percent could be used temporarily in the next elections. “A committee was formed in each district of the province which was tasked with identifying suitable buildings,” he added.
According to the PEC, total number of polling stations in the province would be between 19,000 and 20,000 in the up coming general elections in 2013. The number was around 13,500 in 2008.
“We have ensured that the distances from a voter’s residence to the polling station is at a maximum of 2 kilometres,” he said adding that an overwhelming number of the polling stations were within a kilometre’s distance. Talking about maintaining law and order during the elections, Baloch said the Sindh Police would provide the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) around 100,000 personnel of ranks between inspector and constable for the election security. “This means that we will have about 4 to 6 policemen at each poling station which is of course not sufficient given the figure of sensitive constituencies in the province,” he acknowledged.
However, he added that in the given situation the ECP officials would prioritize deployment at the sensitive polling.
The PEC told that a total of 18.5 million voters had been registered in Sindh while the process of addition, correction and deletion would continue until the elections schedule was announced.
According to him, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had issued up to 433,000 new identity cards in Sindh from January 2012 to August 2012 and that they had been added in the voter lists.
He advised the people who were still not registered with the ECP to download a form from the ECP website and to submit it in their area ECP offices for addition of their names in the electoral rolls.
In reply to a question, he informed that 112,000 dislocated voters who were mistakenly registered with the provincial Election Commission of Balochistan had been retrieved and that FIRs had been lodged against 28 people who had registered fake votes in Balochistan.
When asked about ban on the candidates to provide transport to the voters, he said strict monitoring would be put in place and the election candidates breaking the law would face heavy fines.