Pattan proposes 'participatory' model for democratic elections.

ISLAMABAD -- In order to make the electoral process transparent and democratic, independent election observers have decided to deploy at least two volunteers at every polling station across Pakistan for monitoring the polling exercise during the upcoming by-polls and general elections.

The decision has been made by Pattan and Coalition 38 - an umbrella organisation of several civil society organisations, labour unions, and intellectuals.

Media Coordinator William Pervaiz, while talking to Dawn, said that whenever the next elections would be held the volunteers will be present at polling stations to observe elections and register voting citizens.

'An app, having around 10 questions, will be shared with each of the volunteers so they will have to tick or cross the questions in the app,' he said. When asked about the questions, he said that there will be simple questions regarding the voting atmosphere. 'It is possible that the observer would not be allowed to carry the cell phone along with them so they will be told to fill the questioner, in the app, just after coming out of the polling station.'

He added, 'As a number of ballot papers are rejected because of lacking signatures on the rear side of the ballot paper so volunteers will observe that if Assistant Presiding Officers were signing the ballot papers.'

'Other questions will be if secrecy was being ensured, camps of political parties were at what distance from the polling stations, and if voters were being pushed to cast vote in favour of a specific party,' Mr Pervaiz said. He said that there will be an optional question from the volunteer about the voting choice.

'Two male volunteers will be selected for male polling stations and two females for female polling stations. Volunteers must have the vote registered in the polling station and they will not be paid for the service,' he said.

While replying to another question, Mr Pervaiz said that at least 10,000 volunteers were already registered and efforts would be made to register two volunteers for each polling station across the country so that a complete and authentic report would be released after the completion of polling.

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