The Election Commission plans to unveil its operational framework for the 13th general parliamentary election by the end of this week, Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed disclosed to the press on Monday.
At a briefing held at the Commission’s Agargaon headquarters, Ahmed confirmed that a comprehensive draft of the implementation plan is ready and will be submitted for formal endorsement prior to its public promulgation.
“The strategy emphasises intra-agency coordination and the management of field operations. We anticipate concluding the endorsement and proceeding to formal announcement within the week,” he stated.
Responding to inquiries about potential security threats to the electoral process, the Secretary remarked that the current situation does not warrant alarm. He noted that law enforcement and administrative bodies are actively fulfilling their mandated responsibilities and added that “a diligent and accountable contribution from all actors is the best safeguard against disorder.”
The Secretary subsequently highlighted a range of technical and logistical challenges. To date, approximately 80,000 petitions for adjustments of the national voter roll and associated biometric identification records have been lodged, although the volume is receding. Ahmed attributed the positive trend to enhancements in data-processing protocols that are anticipated to further diminish discrepancies.
On the establishment of polling arrangements, Ahmed reported that while the aggregate number of polling stations will remain substantively unchanged, selective redistributions are contemplated.
The Commission is evaluating the prospect of increasing the Voter-to-Booth ratio from the prevailing cap of 500 to a bandwidth of 600, thereby aiming to enhance queue discipline and optimize logistical deployment of personnel and materials.
In parallel, the Commission intends to effectuate a comprehensive digitization of its archival corpus. Executory provisions include the systematic imaging and electronic deposition of Form 2 constituent docu-mentary records, whose elicitation extends to the tranche year 2008, and whose prior assimilation into the central voter database remains incomplete.
On the registry of political entities, Ahmed reported that field verification exercises are currently being conducted for a submits-set of 22 applications. Entities whose enlistment petitions evince deficiencies are in receipt of formal adverse determinative notices, each of which is accompanied by concomitant locus of rejection.
He reiterated that temporal precocity in preparatory engagements is imperative. Accordingly, should each involved stakeholder execute its assigned mandate within the scheduled epithet, the sequential phases of the electoral continuum are anticipated to be executed without disturbance.
