Pakistan’s election commission has warned that the general elections may have to be delayed if the process of changing electoral symbols does not stop, asserting that it could not keep making alterations with the February 8 polls just around the corner.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said in a statement on Tuesday that after the allotment of the election symbols, political actors are “having them changed through various forums”, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Asserting that despite having issued repeated instructions to relevant authorities that election symbols should remain unchanged once the printing starts, the ECP said that if the trend of changing the election symbols did not stop, there would be no other option but to postpone the polls in such constituencies.
“If the process of changing the election symbols continues in the same way, there is a fear of election delay because the ballot papers will have to be reprinted, for which time is already limited, and on the other hand, the special paper available for the ballot papers will also be lost,” the ECP statement said.
The electoral watchdog said that following the allotment of election symbols, it had already ordered the printing of ballot papers to the three printing corporations, and the printing work had commenced.
According to The Express Tribune newspaper, the ECP’s statement came in response to the requests made by political parties and candidates to change their electoral symbols and the applications pending before the higher courts.
Recently, the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) central polls in charge, Senator Taj Haider, wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), urging the ECP to change the electoral symbols of at least seven of its candidates as they had not been allotted the party’s ‘arrow’ symbol. He added that the returning officers declared the party’s candidates independent.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Secretary General Nayyar Hussain Bukhari raised the issue, saying the matter would be taken to court.
Similarly, a petition of jailed former prime minister and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s founding chairman Imran Khan against the rejection of his nomination papers is still pending with the Lahore High Court, the report said.
Stressing the wastage of paper, the ECP estimated that 2,070 tonnes would be used for printing the ballot papers in the 2024 polls, a multifold increase from the 800 tonnes of paper used in the 2018 elections, the report said. It added that while 220 million ballot papers were printed in 2018, a total of 260 million are being printed this year.
According to the report, cash-strapped Pakistan, which is already facing an acute balance of payment crisis, imports paper.
The ECP hands out electoral symbols to political parties and candidates ahead of elections. The symbols appear on ballot papers along with names, but over 40 per cent of Pakistan’s 241 million population are illiterate, making the pictures extra important for recognition, the report said.
Imran Khan’s PTI party was denied the cricket bat symbol that had become synonymous with the former international cricketer. Pakistan’s election commission has rejected his and his party leaders’ nomination papers.
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