ECP completes printing of 260 million ballot papers for elections

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced that it has completed the printing of 260 million ballot papers for all the 859 constituencies across the country, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

The ECP's spokesperson said that the reprinting of some ballot papers of a few constituencies, as per apex court's orders, was also completed on time.

He said the printing process was completed in three government led printing institutes. After reprinting, now the process of delivery of ballot papers to the relevant ROs and DROs is underway across the country, which will be completed on Monday.

The ECP spokesman maintained that 220 million ballot papers were printed in the 2018 general election and, for this purpose, 800 tonnes of special security paper was used for their printing. However, 260 million ballot papers were printed for the 2024 general election and 2,170 tonnes of paper had been used for the purpose.

He claimed that the increase was mainly due to the jump in the number of candidates in the constituencies, which is one-and-a-half times more than in the 2018 elections.

According to the spokesperson, during the process of printing, many challenges were faced at various stages, including court cases and a large number of candidates, however, the commission fulfilled its responsibility and completed the printing of ballot papers on time.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Election Commission said the delivery of ballot papers to DROs and ROs of all the districts in the province was completed on Monday. ECP Balochistan spokesman Farid Afridi said in most of the areas the ballot papers were handed over via land routes while ballot papers were airlifted in C130 and helicopters in Gawadar, Panjgur, Ketch, Kahran and Washak districts.

Reporters Shoaib Mukhtar, Esa Tareen