ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will conduct online scrutiny of candidates ahead of this year’s general elections.
This was revealed during a meeting at the ECP on Monday headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan. The meeting was held to discuss the scrutiny of nomination papers of election candidates.
Senior officials of the ECP, as well as National Database and Registration Authority, Federal Investigation Agency, National Accountability Bureau, State Bank of Pakistan, Water and Power Development Authority and power and gas utilities were briefed by ECP Information Technology DG Khizer Aziz.
Aziz informed the participants of the meeting that the returning officers would send the candidate’s name, identity card number and constituency name to six different government departments.
He said the RO would be able to get all the details of the candidates online.
Aziz hoped that 30,000 candidates would submit nomination papers this time around, adding that the figure stood at 26,000 in the 2013 elections.
The officials attending the meeting requested the ECP to send nomination papers to them at the earliest so the scrutiny can be conducted as soon as possible as well as to avoid a backlog.
General elections are expected to be held in the last week of July or first week of August after the term of the present government expires on May 31.
Recently, the ECP concluded hearings of objections to the delimitation of new constituencies in the country in line with the latest population census.
