DROs take oath after undergoing training: Nomination papers filing for elections start today

PESHAWAR: The district returning officers (DROs) for 36 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took oath on Tuesday as filing nomination papers for the 2024 general elections are to start today (Wednesday).

The DROs issued public notice to formally launch the elections process. Nomination papers can be submitted till December 22.Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC) Shamshad Khan administered the oath to DROs on completion of their training.

Addressing the DROs, Shamshad Khan, urged them to perform their duties as election officials as per election rules. The PEC asked the DROs not to take into account any political pressure in conducting the elections.

Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry said today was a very important day as ROs had issued public notice. He assured the DROs would be fully supported in conducting the elections in a transparent and peaceful manner.The senior officer urged to make the polling stations accessible to persons with disabilities and ensure availability of all facilities.

As many as 128.585 million voters cast their votes across the country during the general elections.Out of these 69.263 million (53.87 per cent) are male voters while 59.322 million (46.13 per cent) are female voters. The number of total votes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 21.928 million.

The general elections in the country are being held on February 8. Candidates will be allotted election symbols on January 13.With the polls, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will finally get its members in the KP assembly after almost a year.

The KP Assembly was dissolved in mid-January and since then the caretaker setup has been looking after the affairs of the government. After the announcement of the schedule for the general polls in the country, different political parties have kicked off talks with other groups to form alliances or make seat adjustments on different national and provincial assembly constituencies.