ISLAMABAD: The scrutiny of nomination papers, filed by over 7, 000 candidates till the end of the extended deadline at Sunday midnight, would begin today (Monday) and continue till April 7, Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported.
According to reports, the fear of strict scrutiny of nomination papers appears to have kept thousands of aspiring candidates away from the electoral arena as the number of nomination papers filed for Election 2013 dropped by above 50 percent election-on-election basis.
In 2008, over 15,000 candidates had lodged nomination forms with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) – over 10,000 for the provincial assemblies and around 5,000 for National Assembly seats.
However, for Election 2013 only above 7,000 wannabe-lawmakers submitted papers. Around 2,013 nomination papers were received for National Assembly while around 4,029 papers were received for provincial assembly, the ECP spokesman said.
The ECP additional Secretary Muhammad Afzal Khan had already made it clear that there would be merciless scrutiny of candidates’ nomination papers.
“Only those candidates will win who will get the votes from people. No one will be able to get votes on the basis of intimidation,” he maintained.
DND
