The election for the office of the President will be held on Saturday, with Musharraf still to be cleared by the Supreme Court which has restrained the Election Commission (EC) from issuing result till the final decision on the petitions against General Musharraf's candidacy.
The EC is said to have finalised all the arrangement for voting for the office of the President by setting up polling booths in the Parliament House and provincial assemblies, where polling will take place on October 6 from 10 am to 3 pm.
This would be the sixth presidential election wherein Musharraf, who took over power in 1999, seeks re-election to the office of the President lasting till 2013. Nomination papers of President Musharraf, Amin Fahim, Wajihuddin Ahmed, Faryla Talpur, Amir Hussain and Muhamadmian Soomor were accepted. On October 1, Amir Hussain withdrew his nomination papers, leaving five in the race.
The Chief Election Commissioner as returning officer has appointed the Chief Justices of all the four High Courts as presiding officer and got printed 1200 ballot papers.
The EC officials said that the ballot papers have been provided to the presiding officers with names of candidates printed on them both in Urdu and English, along with ballot boxes and the list of voters.
According to procedure, they said, every voter will carry with him his identity card, issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, or, as the case may be, the Senate Secretariat or the Secretariat of the Provincial Assembly, and before receiving a ballot paper to cast his vote, a voter shall, if required for the purpose of proving his identity, produce his identity card before the presiding officer. A validly nominated candidate would appoint one agent overlooking the poll and the count, and would give notice thereof in writing to the presiding officer.