Pakistan: Election Commission concludes training of 1.49 million staff for Feb 8 polls

Islamabad [Pakistan], February 4 : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has concluded the training of nearly 1.49 million election staff to guarantee the smooth conduct of the forthcoming general elections, which are slated to take place on February 8, according to ARY News.
In a statement, the ECP spokesperson stated that the training sessions ensured that all electoral staff could carry out their obligations competently and professionally in the future general elections in 2024.
According to the commission's spokeswoman, a total of 27,676 sessions were held in distant places around the country over 87 days, with 3,821 master trainers involved in thorough election worker training, reported ARY News.
The training sessions began on November 19, 2023, and ended on the evening of February 3, 2024.
The participants in these courses were 144 District Returning Officers (DROs), 859 Returning Officers (ROs), and polling personnel.
A total of 7,663 two-day training sessions were held, with 191,526 trained polling officials, including presiding officers and senior assistant presiding officers (APOs), ARY News reported.
Additionally, 19,630 training sessions were held for 785,060 assistant presiding officers (APOs) and polling officers.
The commission held 148 training sessions to improve the functioning of the Election Management System (EMS), which involved around 5,000 officers and data entry operators (DEOs) associated with returning officers.
The general elections in Pakistan, which will take place on Thursday this week, will be held in 266 general seats of the National Assembly and 593 general seats of four provincial assemblies.
Meanwhile, the ECP has completed all arrangements for the upcoming polls in the country.
The Election Commission has set up 90,675 polling stations throughout all four provinces: Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.