No general elections if KP, Punjab PAs dissolved: ECP

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday said that an election will be held for the dissolved assembly only, dispelling the perception created by PTI that snap polls will be held if Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies are dissolved.

The clarification from ECP came after former prime minister Imran Khan’s announcement last week that PTI will quit all assemblies to pave the way for an early election. An ECP spokesperson said that the Election Commission is bound to hold elections in 60 days in case a seat falls vacant.

The official said that an election on a National Assembly seat costs Rs80 to 100 million while the estimated expenditure of an election on the provincial assembly is Rs60 to 70 million. “In case of dissolution of an assembly, elections will be held only for the respective assembly,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on Monday presided over a meeting on how to improve the computerized electoral rolls system (CERS) and agreed to consider proposals floated for this purpose.

A statement about the meeting held in Lahore was shared with media persons by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s media wing here. Speaking on the occasion after getting briefings on the subject, the chief election commissioner said proposals from the four provinces would be reviewed in an ECP meeting and important steps would be taken to improve the CERS.

The meeting held at the provincial election commissioner’s office was attended by Provincial Election Commissioner Punjab Saeed Gul and other officials. All regional election commissioners and district election commissioners of Punjab also attended the meeting. Director MIS Election Commission Islamabad Imran Ahmed gave a briefing on various aspects of the computerized electoral rolls system. Later, Director MIS Office, Provincial Election Commissioner Punjab, Babar Malik briefed the forum on how to improve the CERS. He said the CERS was an important system under which the ECP registered voters and prepared electoral rolls. This system was present in the offices of Election Commission Islamabad Head Office, Office of Provincial Election Commission and District Election Commission, where district election commissioners and election officers as registration officers supervised the public vote registration and data entry system. New votes, he noted, were also registered in this system while requests for change or correction of residential addresses were received from voters and registered after verification. The director MIS gave a briefing regarding the proposals presented by regional election commissioners and district election commissioners to improve the CERS so that the CERS, monitoring system and new registration system could be simplified. He said the procedure for continuous updating of electoral lists could be devised.