Ballot papers for the 11th Parliamentary Election will be available at all 300 constituencies a week before polls day, said Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed.
“Our preparation for polls is almost complete. Only the training of field level presiding and polling officers are left,” he told the media on Friday (Dec 14).
“We are yet to prepare the ballot papers. But we are hoping to complete it and send it to all 300 constituencies seven days before the voting day,” he added.
Ahmed said that they are waiting on the High Court‘s order regarding certain constituencies, but preparation of ballot papers for the rest are underway.
Responding to queries about why the army was not given magistracy powers as per the request of the opposition, he said, “Army will be deployed from Dec 24 and remain till Jan 2, but their job is to provide support for the civil administration.”
He said there is no scope to give another party magistracy powers when there will be three kinds of judges on the election field.
The EC official said that 652 executive magistrates will oversee if the code of conduct is being followed in addition to 246 joint district judges and 640 judicial magistrates.
“Besides there will be around a 1000 executive magistrates with the troops.”
On the complaints of various candidates regarding polls activity, he said, “Our investigations found that most of them are true.”
“We are looking into the matter and have asked the returning officers to carry out investigations. So far we haven’t found any truth to those complaints but we are waiting on the rest of the reports. Once we receive it, we will take action accordingly,” Ahmed told the journalist when asked what steps were taken against the candidates’ complaint.