ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has finalised all arrangements to hold the by-election in NA-120 Lahore-III in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner on Sunday.

As many as 44 candidates including 32 independent and 12 ticket holders of different political parties are taking part in the election, said an official of the ECP.

Candidates of major political parties included Begum Kalsoom Nawaz from Pakistan Muslim League (N), Faisal Mir from Pakistan People’s Party and Dr Yasmeen Rashid from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

He said the constituency has a total of 3,21,786 registered voters, out of which 1,79,642 are men while 1,42,144 are women.

He said a total of 220 polling stations — 103 for men, 98 for women and 19 combined — have been set up. He added that in total 573 polling booths — 312 for men and 261 for women — have been set up by the ECP.

He said 220 Presiding Officers, 573 Assistant Presiding Officers and 573 Polling Officers would discharge their duties on the day.

Seven monitoring teams have been constituted with 20 officials from Islamabad and four provinces. These well-equipped teams have cameras, transport, and the supporting staff will start their duties from Saturday evening.

These teams will monitor the observance of codes of conduct and the performance of biometric machines and send reports to the ECP, the official said.

The teams will also report to the Returning Officer concerned, the District Returning Officer, the Provincial Election Commissioner Punjab, the Central Monitoring Committee Islamabad and the ECP in case of violations of code of conduct in the constituency, through telephone, fax, whatsapp or email.

He said on receiving any such report from the team, the commission would take action.

The official said senior officials of ECP’s IT wing are also included in these teams, and will examine the performance and other aspects of BVM machines and send reports to the ECP.

He said the commission was already strictly monitoring the code of conduct for the by-election.

The official said the commission has already served a notice to the federal and provincial ministers and directed them not to participate in political activities, or strict legal action will be taken against them.