General elections: ECP appoints district monitoring officers

PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday appointed district monitoring officers for general elections as the date for filing nomination papers was extended till December 24. According to an official of the ECP, apart from district monitoring officers, two monitoring officers were appointed for each constituency to ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct for the polls. The monitoring officers are from district administration and officers of other departments. 

The ECP has announced the code of conduct for all the political parties and candidates during the polls. As the ECP extended the date for submitting nomination papers till Sunday, candidates continued to submit papers on Friday.

Senior political leaders from different parties submitted papers in Peshawar and other districts. Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Sirajul Haq filed nomination papers from NA-7 Dir while provincial president of the Awami National Party Aimal Wali Khan filed papers from NA-25 Charsadda.

According to the ECP, 54 women submitted nomination papers for reserved seats in NA and 171 for KP Assembly till Friday. Besides, 46 candidates filed papers for the seats reserved for minorities from KP.

A total of 358 papers were issued to the candidates for the reserved seats. As per the revised schedule, the scrutiny of nomination papers will be conducted by December 30. Candidates will be allotted election symbols on January 13 and polls will be held on February 8.

Polls will be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 55 National Assembly and 145 KP assembly seats. According to the officials of the ECP there are 45 general seats and 10 seats reserved for women in the National Assembly from KP.

Besides, there are 115 general seats, 26 seats reserved for women and four seats reserved for minorities in the KP Assembly. 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 percent ) are men while 59.322 million (46.13 per cent ) are women. The number of total votes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 21.928 million.