The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued guidelines to Presiding Officers for ensuring ballot papers given to voters are validated properly.
As the nation goes to voting tomorrow, the elections governing body has issued a letter to all Presiding Officers (POs) to ensure their vigilance with regards to ballot papers.
In order to make sure that no vote goes to waste, these are the things that Presiding Officers will have to keep in mind.
Validity of Ballot Papers
As per ECP’s guidelines, a vote will be considered invalid if:
- it’s missing the official code mark or assistant presiding officer’s signature.
- it’s missing ECP’s watermark.
- it’s missing the official nine-matrix seal.
- it has a paper or anything else attached to it.
- it has stamps on more than one candidate’s election symbols.
- it appears equally in more than one candidates’ boxes.
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ECP also clarified about the stamp that appears in the multiple boxes on a vote. In that case, the ballot paper will be considered valid if the prominent portion of the stamp appears in a particular candidate’s box.
A vote will also be considered valid if multiple stamps appear on a candidate’s symbol. The ballot paper will also be considered valid if both the name and the symbol of a particular candidate are stamped.
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The General Elections
The General Elections 2018 to form the next government in Pakistan will be held on 25th July. Polling will start at 8 am across all constituencies and will end at 6 pm on the same day.
A total of 220 million ballot papers have been printed to conduct elections for the Provincial and National Assembly seats.
