How May 9 violence may impact polls possibility in Oct

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government has informed the Election Commission of Pakistan that for general elections it would require far more security officials than the number demanded for the 14th May elections, which could not be held.

In view of the May 9 violent attacks by PTI protesters on private, public and defence installations, buildings etc. the Punjab government is alarmed and has told the Election Commission that now all the polling stations in the province will either fall in the category of highly sensitive or sensitive. 

There won’t be any polling stations falling in the category of normal security requirements. The Election Commission, which was recently given a detailed briefing by the Punjab government on the law and order situation and security requirements for the next general elections, asked the provincial administration to prepare details of the security requirement.

Now the security requirements will be prepared in the light of two categories- A- high-sensitive polling stations, and B- sensitive polling stations. It means the Punjab police will require a greater number of military personnel than what was demanded earlier. For the May 14 elections, which could not be held because of the non-availability of funds and owing to the defence authority’s inability to spare the required number of soldiers for election duties, the Punjab government was short of 385,485 security personnel required for their deployment on polling stations.

In the security plan, which was submitted before the ECP by the Punjab government for the May 14th elections, the category-A (highly sensitive) polling stations were 13071, Category-B (sensitive) polling stations were 18293 and Category-C (normal) polling stations were 20906. The total number of polling stations was 52,270. The security plan had said that for each Category-A polling station, 11 security personnel were required; for each Category-B polling station, nine security personnel were required whereas for each Category-C polling station, five security personnel were required. A total number of 466,506 personnel, including 53,555 required for patrolling, pickets, and DRO/RO offices, were demanded in the 14th May polls. The Punjab government had said that it has 81,050 police personnel available for election duties whereas the shortfall was 385,485.

This shortfall needed to be met by the Pakistan Army, which because of its prime responsibility of defending the borders and meeting security and terrorism challenges was unable to spare the high number of personnel required for election duties. In view of the Punjab government’s security plan for the Ma14 elections, the ECP had conveyed to the Supreme Court that police deployment is required to be made during pre-poll, poll day, post-poll activities, implementation of code of conduct, provision of security to the dignitaries. “As such if Punjab Police is not supplemented by other law enforcing agencies, the security plan of Punjab is not enough to provide foolproof security to the voters, election staff and the public at large,” the ECP had told the Supreme Court. Now, in view of the recent discussion between the Punjab government and the ECP, the Punjab government has been asked to prepare a new security plan for the general elections.

Sources said that the requirement for additional force for election duties would be far higher than before. In other provinces, particularly in KPK and Balochistan, similar demands will arise. Availability of the required number of security personnel for the next general elections in the present situation, will remain a major question, a source said.