The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has completed all arrangements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for presidential election, which is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
For this purpose, a special session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was held on Monday. KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser presided over the session.
The voting will start at 10 am and will continue until 3pm. The Peshawar High Court chief justice, being returning officer for the election from KP, will prepare results soon after completion of the polling process.
The KP Assembly’s total strength is 124, presently it stands at 120 as four seats remain vacant before the by-elections on August 22.
In overall, of 1,123 members of the Senate, national and provincial assemblies would take part in the election. Secret balloting procedure will be adopted for polling.
An official of the Provincial Election Commission said that the ECP has finalised the printing and distribution of ballot papers, adding the printing of ballot papers has been completed and its dispatch has been finalised.
He said the ECP has already issued instructions for the voters (lawmakers) regarding polling day, asking them not to carry mobile phones into the Senate, national and provincial assemblies that have been declared polling stations for the presidential election.
He said the decision on banning mobile phones in polling stations has been taken to keep the voters away from any external influence during the voting process and ensured sanctity of votes.
The voters would not be allowed to leave the polling rooms until the completion of the voting process and ballot paper could not be shown to anyone and taking out photos of the ballot paper would strongly be prohibited.
One-on-one contest is expected in the election between PML-N Mamnon Hussain and PTI Justice Retd Wajihuddin Ahmed for office of the President after the boycott of PPP candidate Raza Rabbani.
