Pakistan to print 200m ballots for Jan 8 election

For January 8 general elections, Pakistan will print around 200 million ballot papers and security forces personnel will be deputed at the printing presses for the purpose, official sources said here Friday.

“Green ballot papers will be printed for the National Assembly election while colour of ballots for election to the provincial assemblies will be white,” an official said, wishing not to be identified. “The printing of ballot papers will start from December 17 and will be completed by December 31,” he added.

The official said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has received estimates about number of ballot papers from the provincial election commissioners. He said that the ballot papers would be printed at the public sector printing facilities equipped with necessary machinery to accomplish the task within stipulated timeframe.

The official said that there would be no difference in quality of paper for ballots to be used for the election to the national and provincial assemblies. “The ballot papers for the Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Faisalabad divisions, Islamabad Capital Territory, North West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas will be printed at printing press of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) in Islamabad,” the official disclosed.

“The ballots for the Gujranwala and Lahore divisions will be printed at the PCP printing facility in Lahore while those for Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur and Multan divisions will be printed at PCP press in Karachi,” he said, adding that ballot papers for the whole of Sindh and Balochistan provinces would also be printed in Karachi.

The official said that the PCP would be made advance payment for printing of the ballot papers so that it could purchase paper, ink, etc. He said that the ballots would be printed under strict vigilance by the security forces so that there is no pilferage of the printed ballots.

“The power distribution companies have been directed to ensure uninterrupted provision of electricity to the PCP printing facilities in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi so that printing process is not delayed,” the official said. The official said that scrutiny of nomination papers would be completed in the troubled tribal agencies and Swat and Shangla districts today (Saturday) and appealed against rejection/acceptance of nominations would be received up to December 12.

“Half of the work for scrutiny of 149 nomination papers for six seats of the National Assembly has been completed on Friday while the rest will be completed on Saturday (today),” the official said. “Similarly, the scrutiny of 152 nomination papers for nine provincial assembly seats of Swat and Shangla districts will also be completed on Saturday,” he added.