On the request of political parties, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday decided to deploy Army and Rangers to perform duties in NA-19 Haripur by-election scheduled to be held today (Sunday), said an ECP spokesman.
There are nine candidates in the run, but the main contest will be between Babar Nawaz Khan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Raja Aamir Zaman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The ECP has established 530 polling stations whereas the constituency has some 500,000 registered voters.
The ECP has also decided to use biometric machines at 30 selected polling stations. The decision was taken in line with the desire of political parties, which was conveyed to the ECP through the Electoral Reforms Committee of Parliament (ERCP), said the spokesman.
The ECP has directed the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the constituency on the polling day.
The commission, in a letter to the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO), said that it would introduce bio-metric machines in the by-election for test-run and for accomplishing the task, un-interrupted power supply should be ensured in Haripur till the completion of polling process.