ISLAMABAD: The first phase of polling staff’s training by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was completed on Friday. In total, nine hundred thousand polling staff will be trained during three phases.
More than 88 lead trainers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were trained during 10-day special training workshop as part of the first phase. The workshop had begun on March 5 and concluded on March 15. The concluding ceremonies of the countrywide workshop were held in Karachi and Quetta on Thursday.
Addressing the concluding ceremonies, senior officials of the ECP expressed their satisfaction over the successful completion of the first phase of training.
In the second phase, the lead trainers will train three thousand master trainers from the four provinces and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) which will begin next month.
In the third and final phase, master trainers will train the polling staff just before the general elections this year.
PRELIMINARY MAPS OF CONSTITUENCIES RELEASED:
ECP also released the preliminary maps of all constituencies situated in all the districts across the country. The maps have been issued in the light of census of 2017 and some adjustments made accordingly.
According to the new maps, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP) will have a total of 39 constituencies starting from NA 1 to NA 39; Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) will have 12 constituencies from NA 40 to NA 51; Islamabad’s three constituencies of NA 52 to NA 54; Punjab will have a total of 141 constituencies starting from NA 55 to NA 195; Sindh will have 61 constituencies in total starting from NA 196 to NA 256; and Balochistan will have a total of 16 constituencies from NA 257 to NA 272.