With the political parties launching their political campaigns ahead of next year's general elections, the apex poll regulator, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), is also mobilising resources in preparation for the national event, which will have a profound impact on the nation.
The apex electoral body (ECP) is finalising the necessary preparation for the elections, including training for polling staff, preparing voters' lists, appointing data entry operators, setting up the Election Management System (EMS) and the Election Monitoring Control Centre (EMCC).
Having announced a tentative schedule for the general elections, with the final date expected to be announced after completing the constituency delimitation exercise by the end of November, the ECP will be mobilising around half a million people to hold the polls. This includes polling officers and staff for the polling stations, security personnel and other relevant officials for the upcoming national exercise, according to estimated figures made available to The Friday Times.
According to data provided about the provinces, the commission said it plans to assign over 300,000 presiding (POs) and assistant presiding officers (APOs) in Punjab and over 200,000 presiding officers and APOs in Sindh.
Similarly, the electoral watchdog plans to appoint over 100,0000 POs at over 50,000 polling stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to estimated figures. Around 50,000 staff will be appointed in the province of Balochistan as well.
Once the final date for elections is announced, the commission will finalise the list of candidates contesting each constituency, print electoral rolls, and assign duties for district returning officers and returning officers, apart from other related matters such as acquiring sufficient ballot boxes, paper for ballots, ink for printing the ballots and the stamps.
ECP officials told The Friday Times that they expect the voter lists to be frozen by the end of the month.
Electoral symbols
The top election regulatory body has also compiled a new list of symbols to allot for the general elections. ECP hopes to allot some 144 election symbols to different legally registered political parties for the upcoming elections, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Another 188 election symbols have been reserved for independent candidates, according to the data.
Last month, the commission said it had decided not to allot election symbols to those political parties which had failed to submit their financial statements and certify if they have conducted intraparty polls.
But almost all parties have now fulfilled this prerequisite.
The regulatory body has recently revealed that the gender gap amongst voters has reduced with the addition of 11.74 million women, compared to 9.28 million male voters, to the electoral rolls.
The total number of registered voters in the country eligible to cast a vote is 127 million. Previously, this figure was 106 million. This means that around 52.7% of the country's population of 241 million are registered to vote.
As per the latest figures, the number of women registered to vote has increased from 46.73 million in 2018 to 58.47 million at the moment, or around 24.26% of the total population.
The number of male voters has also increased from 59.22 million in 2018 to 68.50 million, or around 28.42% of the total population, according to recently conducted data.
According to the voters list in Punjab, the number of registered voters is 72.31 million. Since 2018, there has been an increase of 11.637 million voters in the province.
Currently, there are at least 38.720 million male voters registered in Punjab, while the number of registered women is 35.99 million.
According to sources, the voters' list will be frozen by the end of this month, and the matters regarding allotting symbols will also be finalised in the next month.