ECP to announce final list of election candidates today

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will announce the final list of candidates contesting the upcoming general election on Saturday. 

The electoral body will also issue electoral symbols to the contesting candidates today, as per the election schedule.

According to the electoral body, it started preparing the final list of candidates after the deadline to submit party tickets and withdraw nomination papers ended on Friday.

The finalised list of the candidates, along with their electoral symbols, will be released on Form-33 at 4pm today. 

The appellate tribunals across the country heard and decided the appeals of candidates against rejection and acceptance of nomination papers by June 27. The ECP had established 21 appellate tribunals countrywide for trial and disposal of appeals against the decisions of Returning Officers for rejecting or accepting of nomination papers pertaining to national and provincial assembly constituencies for general seats as well as seats reserved for non-Muslims in the National Assembly.

As many as six tribunals had been established in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight in Punjab, four in Sindh, two in Balochistan and one in Islamabad.

The process of filing of nomination papers with the Returning Officers by the candidates was started on June 4 and continued till June 11, while the names of the nominated candidates were published on June 11.

The last date for scrutiny of nomination papers was June 19, while the last date for filing of appeals against the decisions of the Returning Officers was June 22. The last date for deciding of appeals by the appellate tribunals was June 27, while the date of publication of revised list of candidates was June 28.

According to an official of the ECP, the date of polls will remain intact and the general election will be held on July 25, 2018 as notified earlier, in a free, fair and transparent manner.

He said that the commission has issued final polling scheme for national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies for the conduct of general elections 2018 in all four provinces and federal capital.

He added the commission has placed all the details regarding final polling scheme on its official web portal for voters’ facilitation by ensuring compliance with their basic fundamental rights under the Constitution of Pakistan.

The polling scheme consisted of name of constituency, name of polling station, name of electoral area, census block code, serial number of voters on the electoral roll in case electoral area is bifurcated, number of voters assigned to a polling station including male, female and total number of polling booths allotted to a constituency, the official added.