Forms 15 contain comprehensive details

ISLAMABAD
All the Forms 15 filled up by the presiding officers (PO) after the close of polling and put in the ballot bags, which the Judicial Commission has ordered to produce, contain comprehensive details of voting papers received by every polling station.
This means that the commission will receive a total of 70,000 Forms XV similar to the number of polling stations.
A perusal of the Form-XV shows that information about the total ballot papers received for use at the polling station with their serial numbers is given in it.
Total number of ballot papers taken out of the ballot box or boxes and counted will be mentioned in this document. It will also contain the details of total number of tendered, challenged, spoilt and cancelled ballots.
Additionally, the total number of un-issued ballot papers with their serial numbers will also be written in the form. The total of all these categories of ballot papers has to equal the voting papers received by the polling station.
The PO of every polling station will fill up this form separately for the national and provincial seats.
Section 38 of the Representation of People Act (ROPA) deals with this aspect. It says the PO will give a certified copy of the statement of the count and the ballot paper account to such of the candidates, their election agents or polling agents as may be present and obtain a receipt for it.
The PO will seal in separate packets the non-issued ballot papers; spoilt papers; tendered ballots; challenged ballots; the marked copies of the electoral rolls; counterfoils of used ballot papers; tendered votes list; challenged votes list; and such other papers as the Returning Officer (RO) may direct.
The PO will obtain on each statement and packet so prepared the signature of such of the contesting candidates or their agents or polling agents as may be present and, if any such person refuses to sign, the PO will record that fact. A person required to sign a packet or statement may, if he so desires, also affix his seal to it.
The PO will, in compliance with such instructions as may be given by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in this behalf, cause the packets, the statement of the count and the ballot paper account prepared by him to be sent to the RO together with such other records as it may direct.
The PO will count the votes immediately after the close of the poll in the presence of such of the contesting candidates, election agents and polling agents as may be present. He will give them reasonable facility of observing the count and give them such information with respect thereto as can be provided in consistent with the orderly conduct of the count and the discharge of his duties in connection therewith.
No person other than the PO, the polling officer, any other person on duty in connection with the poll, the contesting candidates, their election agents and polling agents will be present at the count.
The PO will open the used ballot box or ballot boxes and count the entire lot of ballot papers taken out therefrom; open the packet bearing the label challenged ballot papers and count them; count, in such manner as may be prescribed, the votes cast in favour of each contesting candidate excluding from the ballot papers which bear no official mark and signature of the PO; any writing or any mark other than the official mark, the signature of the PO and the prescribed mark or to which a piece of paper or any other object of any kind has been attached; no prescribed mark to indicate the contesting candidate for whom the elector has voted; or any mark from which it is not clear for whom the elector has voted.
A ballot paper will be deemed to have been marked in favour of a candidate if the whole or more than half of the area of the prescribed mark appears clearly within the space containing the name and symbol of that contestant and, where the prescribed mark is divided equally between two such spaces, the ballot paper shall be deemed invalid.
The PO may recount the votes of his own motion if he considers it necessary; or upon the request of a candidate or an election agent present if, in his opinion, the request is not unreasonable.
The valid ballot papers cast in favour of each candidate will be put in separate packets and each such packet will be sealed and will contain a certificate as to the number, both in letters and figures, of the ballot papers put in it and will also indicate the nature of the contents thereof, specifying the name and symbol of the contesting candidate to whom the packet relates.
The ballots excluded from the count will be put in a separate packet indicating the total number both in letters and figures of the papers.
The packets will be put in a principal packet, which will be sealed by the PO. The PO will, immediately after the count, prepare a statement of the count in such form as may be prescribed showing the number of valid votes polled by each contesting candidate and the ballot papers excluded from the count.