Pakistan s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq says Monday s parliamentary election will be free, fair and transparent. We have taken every step to obliterate any chance of rigging at any phase of the electoral process, the CEC said in his address to the nation Sunday night. The CEC said police and paramilitary forces backed by Pakistan Army have been deployed at the polling stations and the voters would be provided a congenial environment to exercise their right to vote. He warned Nazims (mayors) not to favour any political party or candidate and if any one was found involved in it, he or she will face strict legal action. Farooq said after the tragic incident of assassination former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the date for polls, earlier scheduled for Jan 8, had to be postponed till February 18. The CEC said the election commission devised a comprehensive Code of Conduct for political parties and the candidates and hoped they would strictly abide by it for a conducive political environment. He said there are more than 80 million registered voters and as the election for national and provincial assemblies are being held the same day, the election commission has deployed 125 District Returning Officers, 484 Returning Officers and 1,027 Assistant Returning Officers for the conduct of polls. It has set up 64,176 polling stations that would have 170,174 polling booths all over Pakistan. The CEC said the voters would be provided two separate ballot papers and every ballot paper would bear different number and secret stamps on the back. For national Assembly, the colour of ballot box would be green and for the provincial assemblies, it would be off white. He said transparent ballot boxes are being used for casting votes and would be shown empty to the polling agents before the polling starts and be sealed in their presence. The ballot boxes would be placed in front of the polling agents as well as polling staff. Farooq said the voters would present their ID cards to cast votes and their ID card number would be written on the counter file of the ballot papers. He said, like the past, counting would start at the polling stations soon after the vote cast concludes and statement for the results would be prepared in presence of the polling agents. The polling agents, he said, would also be provided the copies of the results as well as pasted outside the polling stations for the information of general public.
