After tireless efforts to remove all hiccups in the conduct of the nationwide general election — from deciding the poll day’s date to the conclusion of electioneering activities — the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is all set to organise the polling day on February 8.
Once the votes are in, the ECP will pull up its socks for the “compilation of results” — the most crucial and combative phase of the entire electoral exercise.
The crucial phase will immediately begin for the ECP countrywide just after the conclusion of the polling at 5pm tomorrow (Thursday). National media is bound to start reporting the election results from 6pm. Moreover, the media is also restricted to share elec tion-related stories with a disclaimer that these are unofficial and unconfirmed results.
In a news conference recently, Additional Director General (ADG) Nighat Sadique said that presiding officers were obligated to send the election results to the election commission by the early hours of February 9 by 2am.
However, in case of any delay, the returning officer (RO) will inquire about the cause of the delay from the presiding officer (PO) and submit it to the ECP.
In the presser, the ECP ADG was also confident that the election results would be finalised by 10am, and with that, Pakistan would get its newly elected government.
It is pertinent to mention here that the votes’ announcement is a three-step process — provisional results, consolidation of results, and declaration of results.