Printing of ballot papers under army supervision begins
islamabad — The printing of ballot papers for the July 25 general election in Pakistan began on Sunday under the supervision of the army, which has deployed hundreds of soldiers to provide security to the printing presses where ballot-papers are being prepared.
The ballot papers are being printed at three printing presses across the country — Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. “The printing of ballot papers began today,” Geo TV reported.
The Election Commission had imported papers for the printing of ballot papers to ensure transparency.
The channel said that 210 million ballot papers will be printed with more than Rs2 billion being spent on the exercise, making it the most expensive venture in the history of the country’s elections. The cost of a single ballot paper comes to around Rs10, sources said.
The ballot papers are said to carry a watermark, something which none of the previous papers had.
The papers will also be printed in “round figures”, meaning if a polling station has 1,201 voters, 1,300 papers will be printed.
The government will deploy hundreds of thousands of soldiers both inside and outside the polling stations to boost security during the elections on July 25.
There will be more than 85,000 polling stations situated in around 45,000 buildings across the country. —