Islamabad: The army was deployed on Sunday at the facilities of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to provide security during the printing of 180 million ballot papers for the May 11 general elections.
The printing process is to start from midnight April 19 and continue until April 24 and only the authorised people would be allowed to enter the guarded premises.
According to final voter data published by the ECP, the total number of registered voters in the country is more 86 million, including more than 37 million female voters.
The most populous province, Punjab, has more 49 million voters, followed by Sindh with around 18 million; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 12.26 million. Balochistan has 3.33 million; Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have 1.73 million and federal area with around 625,000 voters.
Currently election tribunals are hearing appeals against rejection or acceptance of candidatures for national assembly and four provincial assembly, a process which will concluded on April 17.
Guidelines
The ECP will publish on April 19 a final list of candidates in the arena for seats in federal and provincial assemblies after which the ongoing electioneering by political parties and their ticket holders will get into top gear in the runup to the May 11 polling day.
The commission also gave on Sunday a revised code for candidates according to which candidates would be barred from seeking votes on the basis of race or sect.
Provision of free transport for vote-casting, leaving the polling station with the ballot paper and chasing voters away from polling stations has been declared as a punishable offence according to the new guidelines.
The ECP prohibits the setting up of party camps within a 400 metre radius of polling stations.
