Pakistan general elections 2013, which are being held on May 11 exactly today after few hours. These elections will see lots of new voters who does not gone through the voting process earlier, here are the steps each voter will have to go through while poling.
Important info: Voting will start at 8am and will continue till 5pm exactly without any break. Any voters in boundary of polling station at 5pm will be able to cast their vote but people arriving after 5pm will not be entertained. Also do remember to take your National Identity Card (NIC) with you, you will not be allowed to cast you vote without NIC.
After reaching poling station you will be on end of a queue and will wait for your turn. As soon as its your turn following are the steps to cast the vote.
Step 1. You will head to the desk of polling officer, he/she will verify your identity and verify in a list that you are entitled to vote here. If he/she identifies you and finds your name and National Identity Card (NIC) number in his/her list, then he/she will cut your name from the list, mark your thumb just above nail with fairly permanent ink and will send you to the next desk
Step 2. On next desk assistant presiding officer will fill a form for you, will get your thumb print at that form, will also put stamp on back of the National Assembly (NA) ballet paper and will provide you the National Assembly ballet paper. It would be green in color.
Step 3. On next step another assistant presiding officer will fill another form for you, this will be for ballet of provincial assembly. Will similarly get you thumb print on the form. Will also put a stamp on back to provincial assembly ballet paper and will provide you the ballet paper. Provincial assembly ballet papers are in white color.
Step 4. Now you will go alone behind a voter screen, there you will put stamp on sign of your choice on both provincial and national assembly ballet papers. Now you will fold both ballet papers but be cautious your vote can go invalid if you fold the ballet paper incorrectly and your stamp gets copied to another sign. So follow the steps in following image while folding your ballet paper.
Step 5. After putting the given stamp on both ballet papers and after folding them correctly, you will come out from behind of voter screen. Now you will put the green ballet paper in ballet box with green top and white ballet paper in ballet box with white top. Now you will return the stamp and will exit the polling station.
For your ease following two images show all these steps mentioned above in Urdu language as well.
Now after you know how to vote in Pakistan elections 2013, please vote on election day, its your right as well as your responsibility to vote and choose the right candidates. Only choose the person who you think will be better for Pakistan, please forget all relations and personal associations while voting, only think about better Pakistan.
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