Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (r) Sardar Raza Ahmed Khan Saturday said the Local Government (LG) elections could be considered better than the general election 2013 given the deployment of well-trained manpower and efficient security measures.
The CEC, in a video message, said the Commission had successfully accomplished another task of holding LG elections across the country with its final phase held in Punjab and Sindh on Saturday. He said that fulfilling its responsibility under Article 140-A of the Constitution, the Commission held LG elections on April 25 in Cantonment Boards and on May 30 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The LG polls in Punjab and Sindh provinces were held in three phases with first phase on October 30, second on November 19 and third on December 5. The local body election in Islamabad was held on November 30, he added.
The CEC said elections took place in total 83,893 constituencies of 95 districts, contested by 305,431 candidates, and 82,840,135 registered voters exercised their right to vote.
In general election 2013, Sardar Raza said, some 15,629 candidates had contested in 849 constituencies with total 80 million voters. Around 300,000 polling staff had performed their duties at 69,801 polling stations and 180 million ballot papers were printed.
It could be adjudged that the volume of LG polls was much wider than the general election, he added.
The Election Commission of Pakistan, he said, had made special arrangements for the LG polls, besides training and supervision of the polling staff.
Around 122,648 presiding and assistant presiding officers were trained in 4,091 phases to ensure timely supply of polling material and holding of the elections fairly through trained staff, he said.
He said the input of polling staff also made this training process more efficient.
During the LG polls, 2,741 DROs, ROs and AROs along with 690,624 polling staff performed their duties at 70,941 polling stations.
He said some 171 companies of Pakistan Army, 15,000 personnel of Rangers and 450,648 police workforce of respective provinces were deployed to maintain the law and order situation during the polling process.
Around 3.8 billion rupees were spent on the whole polling process, he added.
Extending his thanks to Pakistan Army, Rangers, police, media, polling staff and ECP officers, the CEC hoped that state institutions would continue extending their cooperation to the Commission in the future as well.
