Over 750,000 UNDP trained government staff joined election duties

More than 750,000 government employees trained by the UNDP have joined election duties at the 69,876 polling stations across Pakistan.

Following the ECP’s announcement on appointing the electoral staff at the polling stations, over 7000,000 employees of the Federal and Provincial Governments comprising the ECP staff members and school teachers would be reporting to the returning officers (ROs) concerned Friday morning to make prior arrangements for the polling day, hours after the elections campaigns of the general polls contestants came to an end Thursday midnight.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director in Pakistan Marc-Andre Franche had told The Nation that the UNDP had trained 33,000 policemen from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Police, over 450 ROs and more than 70,00,00 polling staff (reportedly 720,000), including the ECP officials and school teachers, for performing duties in the general elections.

According to the UN diplomat, the training was imparted under three training programmes. The ROs, he said, were trained for the elections’ result management, the policemen were trained under the basic electoral security programme while the polling staff was trained by the UNDP and IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems), he had informed.

The UN agency has trained 19,000 personnel deputed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA to respond to the security threats in wake of declining security situation there while 14,000 officials of the Punjab Police have also been trained.
Reportedly, these policemen have already been deployed at the constituencies concerned to perform the election duties.
They would be guarding the polling stations from Friday.