Islamabad: Because of the candidates’ deaths, the Pakistan Election Commission has halted the polls in two constituencies for the provincial assemblies and one National Assembly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The ECP said on Friday that the elections scheduled for February 8 in PK-22 Bajaur, PK-91 Kohat, and NA-8 Bajaur will not take place.

Without giving a specific date, it said that the calendar for the three constituencies’ elections would be disclosed later.
The candidates in each of the three constituencies would resubmit their nomination papers, it was noted.

With just a few days till the general elections on February 8th, the ECP has announced that the printing of ballots for every constituency has been successfully completed.

Director General Political Finance Masood Akhtar Sherwani emphasized the importance of paper and printing in protecting voters’ rights during a briefing on the procedure.

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“Bringing the voters closer to them is our aim. “We started printing ballots on January 14 and finished them today,” he said. A total of 260 million voting cards were printed, with green ones designated for the National Assembly and white ones for regional assemblies.

Three printing presses, each with its own unique security measures, hosted the entire operation. Five percent of printed ballots are single-column, fifty percent are double-column, thirty percent are three-column, eleven.15 percent are four-column, and two percent are five-column.

In addition, Form-45 is printed and sent out with the voting materials. According to him, there will be 54.74% more candidates overall in the 2024 election than there were in the 2018 election, which would result in a 194.75% increase in the need for special papers.

The size of the ballot papers has been decreased to avoid wastage during printing, resulting in a decrease in the demand for special paper from 2,400 tonnes to 2,170 tonnes.

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Voter guides for sixteen constituencies had been reissued in compliance with court orders, and the DG Political Finance confirmed that 49 issues pertaining to the electoral process had been brought before the Supreme Court.

Additionally, ballots for Balochistan constituencies have also been distributed without incident. He claimed that air shipments had been used to guarantee a safe and effective delivery procedure in response to security concerns and difficult weather in some areas. He said that all districts—33 not included—had received their ballots; the remaining districts had received them.