The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday declared returning officers (RO) responsible for mismanagement in first phase of local body (LB) polls in Punjab and Sindh.
The commission has decided to appoint ROs who have performed their duties up to the mark in the second phase.
The authorities said that officers belonging to the bureaucracy could not have implemented the electoral code of conduct. The commission said that ROs carelessness led to misprinting of ballots in Punjab and Sindh.
The officials said that ECP has to hold re-elections in several union councils (UC) because of the misprinting issue.
Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sardar Raza Muhammad Khan chaired a meeting to discuss issues faced during the first phase. The meeting also reviewed recommendations to avoid repeating the same mistakes again.
The meeting was attended by Punjab and Sindh commissioners, and other officials of the ECP.
The meeting was briefed about the polls in Punjab and Sindh by several officials including additional secretaries for administration and training and provincial elections commissioners of Punjab and Sindh.
Recommendations were forwarded by the provincial commissioners during their presentations. They also highlighted issues faced by the administration in the first phase. ADG (PR) briefed about the voter education campaign during the polls.
Administration additional secretary talked about printing of ballot papers and transportation of polling material. The additional secretary for training shed light on the ongoing training of members for the second and third phase.
