The Election Commission of Pakistan continued its preparations for the general elections and decided to conduct strict scrutiny of the returning officers. The ECP expanded the scope of scrutiny of the ROs and sought informal reports from the institutions and officers. The commission completed compilation of lists of the ROs for the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies.
The scrutiny process of the ROs for the National Assembly, Sindh and Balochistan assemblies is underway. The commission will depute the ROs for completing the scrutiny process which could delay the deputations. As per the law, the commission is bound to depute ROs two months before announcing the schedule of the general elections.
The ECP has decided to expedite the deputation of the District Returning Officers and Returning Officers. Separate ROs will be deputed in NA and provincial assemblies during the general polls. The ROs will prepare the polling schemes for constituencies concerned after their deputations. For general polls, the ROs will be appointed in 859 constituencies.
