The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday handed over election materials to relevant staff and finalized arrangements for the by-election scheduled on October 16 (Sunday) on three vacant National Assembly seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The election materials were handed over to staff concerned for NA-31 at Nishter Hall Peshawar and also dispatched to district returning officers of Charsadda and Mardan.

Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Farid Khattak visited the material distribution places and issued instructions to District Returning Officers (DRO) and Returning Officers (ROs) for fair and transparent elections. He urged all the voters, particularly women to exercise their right to vote by visiting polling stations without any fear or threat to perform their national duty.

The constituencies wherein the by-election is scheduled to include NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda and NA-31 Peshawar-V. The total number of voters in these constituencies is over 1,450,000, out of which the number of men is over 850,000 while 642,000 are women.

The polling will begin at 8:00 a.m. and will continue till 5:00 p.m. without any interval. However, voters present inside the polling stations will be allowed to cast their votes despite the expiry of the time.

A total of 16 candidates are contesting from these constituencies, four each from NA-22 Mardan and NA-24 Charsadda, while eight candidates are contesting from NA-31, and Peshawar-V respectively.

According to the spokesman of the Provincial Election Commission, 979 polling stations have been established in all three NA constituencies including 429 polling stations for men and 351 for women, while 199 polling stations are for both men and women.

Out of the 979 polling stations 745 have been declared as highly sensitive and 234 as sensitive. Strict security measures have been ensured.

For evolving election strategy, a meeting among all returning officers, district administration, and officers concerned was also held to conduct this phase of the by-election in a smooth manner.

Special training has also been imparted to all presiding officers and polling staff for the compilation of election results. Media has been restricted from broadcasting any unofficial result.

The provincial election commission has made a complaint to the Chief Secretary KP and IGP due to the non-cooperation and indifferent attitude of DPO Charsadda in connection with the conduct of fee and fair by-election in Charsadda.