The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decreased the number of polling stations for the February 18 elections, although the number of voters has risen by one million since the 2002 elections.
According to the polling scheme available on the ECP website, 64,176 polling stations (170,174 polling booths) have been set up for 80.9 million voters in the February 18 elections. In the 2002 elections, 64,470 polling stations (1,64,697 polling booths) were set up for 71.9 million voters.
The ECP rules (Guidelines for the Preparation of Lists of Polling Stations) require a polling station for every 1,000 to 1,200 voters, and therefore 67,425 polling stations for 80.9 million voters. The ECP set up 380 polling stations for 383,606 voters in Islamabad in the 2002 elections. It will set up 382 polling stations for 482,801 voters this year. In Punjab, 37,504 polling stations were set up in the 2002 elections for 148 National Assembly seats and 37,431 for 297 Punjab Assembly seats. The number of voters has risen from 4,126,8876 in 2002 to 44,485,896 in 2008, and the ECP plans to set up 37,636 polling stations.
In Sindh, there were 13,957 polling stations for 16,188,528 voters in the 2002 elections. The ECP plans to set up 13,406 polling stations for 19,506,473 voters in the February elections. In NWFP, there were 8,055 polling stations for 8,854,393 voters in the 2002 elections. This year, 8,173 polling stations will be set up for 10,661,212 voters.
In Fata, there were 1,134 polling stations for 1,283,974 voters in 2002. The number of polling stations will drop to 1,122 this year for 1,410,326 voters. In Balochistan, 3,440 polling stations served for 39,26,058 voters in 2002 and 3,457 polling stations will be set up for 43,636,610 voters in the February elections.