No compromise on poll staff credibility: ECP

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Babar Yaqoob on Thursday said there would be no compromise on credibility and efficiency of the election staff.

Addressing a press conference here after holding ECP's 11th Planning Committee meeting, the ECP secretary said the commission had decided to train its staff well before the elections. He said the ECP in today's meeting reviewed preparations to hold the 2018 general election in a fair and transparent manner besides result management system.

He said the agenda of the meeting included the ECP's recommendation for budgetary allocation for 2017-2018, keeping in view the preparations, purchase of ballot boxes and other election material, new offices for district election commissioners and poll monitoring.

He said the meeting approved comprehensive training programme for presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, polling officers and other staff. He said the ECP officers’ training  was one aspect of general elections which was being considered seriously, and the training of master trainers have been completed, who will further train the officers to improve their professional skills.

The ECP secretary said a total of 586,000 ECP staff members would be trained during a year and a total 23,440 training sessions would be held throughout the country. He said the ECP was working on electronic voting machines and biometric system, which would be introduced on trial basis in the upcoming by- election in Karachi while its working would be monitored.

He said the commission has been working on its own storage facility and in this regard the ECP has got buildings in 19 districts while 10 more buildings would be obtained soon.

He said during visit of the chief election commissioner to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, there was suggestion of getting returning officer and district returning officer from the judiciary.  He said the commission has asked the provincial governments to take serious notice of such polling stations having lack of basic facilities for voters and asked to improve the standard of such polling stations.

He said the Electoral Reforms Committee has been working on new unified law, and after approval of this law, the ECP would be able to implement its plans. He said the ECP has completed listing of 70,000 polling stations on goggle map to facilitate the people.

He said in order to ensure accuracy in sharing of election results by media, the ECP has been working on code of conduct, which would be finalised in consultation with journalists and bodies concerned, including Pemra.