ECP unveils schedule for postal balloting

ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has fixed July 5 as last date for receiving of applications regarding postal ballots for general election 2018.

As per sec (93) of the Election Act 2017, the out-stationed voters, who cannot reach to the polling station in person, can cast their votes for the national and provincial assemblies through postal ballots.

According to an ECP official, the facility, as per the law, has been extended to the persons in government service, members of Armed Forces, their spouses and such of their children as are registered voters and ordinarily reside with them provided they are stationed at a place other than the place in which their constituency is situated, persons with any physical disability who are unable to travel and hold a National Identity Card with a logo for physical disability issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and the persons who are detained in prison or held in custody are also entitled to vote by postal ballot.

The last date in this behalf for such polling personnel and police personnel as are posted at a polling station other than one at which they are entitled to cast their vote, has been fixed as July 10.

Persons, who are appointed to act as presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, polling officers and police personnel, who are assigned duties at the polling stations, have been advised to apply for postal ballot by July 10, by which time their appointments as polling personnel are expected to have been finalized and the fact of their appointment indicated to them, the official said.

He said applications for postal ballots would be made on the prescribed form available on the ECP's website in Urdu and English or might be obtained from the returning officer concerned of the constituency.

The official said the voters to whom postal ballots were issued would not be entitled to vote in person at the polling stations.

The application would be forwarded or endorsed by the office or department of the voter concerned to guard against unauthorized person applying for postal ballots, he added.