ECP notifies appointment of DROs, ROs, AROs

ISLAMABAD: Taking a major step towards holding the 2018 general elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday notified the appointment of district returning officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers.

The ECP made this announcement after a crucial meeting of the commission. It said that district and sessions judges have been appointed as district returning officers (DROs) across Pakistan. However, in some districts, district returning officers have been appointed from the bureaucracy as well.

Hence, the majority of returning officers (ROs) is from the lower courts while as per the law, assistant returning officers have been appointed from the administration. The total number of DROs is 131: one DRO (district and sessions judge) for each constituency, barring Fata and Balochistan’s three districts; Sherani, Kohlu and Sikandarabad.

Whereas, for seven agencies of the Fata, political agents have been appointed as district returning officers and for the Frontier Regions of Peshawar, Bannu and Kohat, commissioner Bannu division would serve as district returning officer.

Appointment of 34 DROs has been notified for Balochistan: 16 returning officers for as many seats of the National Assembly and for Balochistan Assembly’s 51 seats, as many 51 ROs appointed. Of these, four are from the administration.

Moreover, for the federal capital, one DRO has been notified while three ROs for its three seats of the National Assembly. For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 25 DROs have been notified while for its 39 NA seats, there are as many ROs for 99 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. For Sindh, there are 27 DROs and 61 ROs for as many NA seats, whereas 130 ROs for as many Sindh Assembly seats.

There are 36 DROs for Punjab’s 36 districts and 297 ROs for as many seats of Punjab Assembly. Earlier, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (R) Sardar Raza Khan has said that the scrutiny (online) of nomination papers of election candidates will be swift and as per Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

He said meeting here at the Election Commission Secretariat devised a mechanism for scrutiny of nomination papers of election candidates. The meeting was attended by Senior officials of the ECP, as well as National Database and Registration Authority, Federal Investigation Agency, National Accountability Bureau, State Bank of Pakistan, Water and Power Development Authority and power and gas utilities.

Nadra has been asked to prepare a software for online scrutiny of nomination papers, which will be connected to all the related institutions and the concerned returning officer after having been approved by the Election Commission. Nadra will share information with these institutions as well as the returning officers.

These will be then given to the Election Commission, which will make sure that during scrutiny, all necessary information will be made available to the returning officers. During the meeting, the ECP set a timeline of eight days to complete scrutiny of candidates’ documents and also included the FIA in the process for the first time. The commission also sought recommendations from the government departments to make the process more efficient.

The ECP decided to conduct online scrutiny of candidates ahead of this year’s general election and ruled that if a candidate found defaulting from any department, the returning officer (RO) would be informed of it immediately for necessary action.

The forum was informed that for 2013 general election, as many as 26,000 candidates had submitted their nomination papers; of them, 16,000 were declared valid. It is speculated that 30,000 candidates will file their nomination papers for the 2018 elections.