ISLAMABAD: Raising apprehension that questions will be raised if the next general elections are held without delimitation of new constituencies, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob has said that the ECP has thus written to the government for creating new constituencies.
He said this while addressing a seminar on Electoral Reforms Act 2017 here on Monday.
The secretary also informed that the ECP has objected to some clauses of the newly-passed law because it will deprive the poor of contesting elections in the upcoming polls. He also said that this law should have been passed earlier in the Parliament.
“Once the Census 2017 results are finalised, the new electoral constituencies would be formed,” said Yaqoob, adding that the ECP needed a minimum of five months for making new constituencies.
Talking about the electronic voting machines (EVM), he said the experiment of using BVMs will not succeed in the country because of its high cost, and added that a policy on the matter is being devised.
The secretary said that the use of BVMs in the NA-120 by-election in Lahore last month revealed the anomalies in the system as thumb impressions of 10 to 12 per cent of the voters of the constituency could not be verified. He added that around 12.5 million voters were not registered with the National Data and Registration Authority (NADRA).