Election Commission senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed on Monday said that preparations for the forthcoming national elections are approximately 90 per cent complete, with final arrangements expected to be finished within the coming week.
Speaking to reporters at the EC headquarters in the capital, Akhtar Ahmed provided detailed updates on polling centres, political party registration, and election observer accreditation.
He said that the commission had finalised the list of permanent polling centres and rooms across the country.
There are a total of 42,761 polling centres across 64 districts and 300 constituencies, with 244,739 polling rooms in total 鈥� 115,137 for men and 129,602 for women.
In addition, a preliminary 14 temporary polling centres, including around 12,000 rooms, have been planned.
Each polling room is designed to accommodate an average of 3,000 voters, with final room distributions to be determined later based on local voter numbers.
The EC secretary acknowledged that the registration of political parties was one of two areas where preparations were slightly behind schedule.
A total of 22 political parties have been identified as eligible for review, and field offices are currently collecting additional data on these organisations.
Akhtar Ahmed said that the process was expected to be completed within the week, after which registration decisions would be made.
The registration of election observer agencies is the second area running slightly behind schedule.
鈥楾he EC aims to finalise the registration process within the same week, although the final number of approved observer agencies has yet to be determined,鈥� EC secretary said.
Apart from these two areas, the EC considers itself 90 to 95 per cent prepared for the upcoming election.
Responding to a question on whether the Representation of the People Order might be amended again following future dialogues with political parties, Akhtar Ahmed described the matter as 鈥榯echnical鈥�.
The EC secretary outlined the process and five main considerations that guided the commission鈥檚 review of the RPO amendment.
He explained that some proposals were accepted without debate as they were considered inherently valid and acceptable.
Others were adopted with minor linguistic or numerical adjustments. Certain proposals, however, required political consensus, while others were deemed unnecessary as the EC believed existing laws were sufficient.
Some changes were incorporated based solely on the commission鈥檚 own judgment.
The final amendment proposal was compiled by merging three categories of recommendations 鈥� those accepted without dispute, those accepted with minor revisions, and those adopted at the commission鈥檚 own discretion.
He said that the document was then sent for legal vetting to the law ministry and subsequently approved by the Advisory Council.
A key issue linked to the RPO amendment involves the allocation of electoral symbols, particularly for coalition or alliance parties.
Regarding the National Citizen Party鈥檚 request for the water lily as its election symbol 鈥� which is not listed in the EC's official schedule 鈥� the secretary reiterated that the commission would allocate a symbol at its discretion, maintaining the EC鈥檚 earlier position.