ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja visited the National Assembly hall where polling for the 37 Senate seats is being held.
According to details, the chief election commissioner examined the polling process. More than 185 members of the lower house of Parliament have already cast their votes.
Prominent among those who have cast their ballot are PPP Co-Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The monitoring cell of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has received two complaints so far regarding the ongoing Senate elections.
Both complaints were received from the Balochistan Assembly regarding the delay in the commencement of the voting process during Senate elections today. The ECP has issued instructions to the presiding officer for the redressal of their complaints. The ECP member in Balochistan Assembly Shah Muhammad Jatoi has been directed to immediately redress the complaints regarding the voting.
The EC has established a telephone helpline and constituted a vigilance committee to stop electoral malpractices in the Senate elections. The vigilance committee members include officials of ECL, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
A management system had also been established to collect complaints by the election commission besides the establishment of a special monitoring cell which will be made functional for 24 hours for looking over the electoral process by the CEC.
