Everything you must know about a valid ballot paper before you go to vote

A woman folds a ballot paper before casting her vote at a polling station in Chaman, the border town of Pakistan on May 11, 2013. Photo: AFP

Voting will continue uninterrupted for 10 hours on Wednesday. A total 105,955,409 people are registered to vote across the country. It is important to ensure that your vote does not go to waste.

The Election Commission has laid down the conditions for a ballot paper to be considered a valid vote.

According to the election regulatory body, a ballot paper will be invalid if:

1. The official code mark or assistant presiding officer’s signature is missing
2. The Election Commission’s watermark is missing
3. The official nine-matrix seal is missing
4. A paper or anything else is attached to it
5. There are stamps on more than one candidate’s election symbols
6. The stamp appears equally in more than one candidate’s boxes

The Election Commission added that a ballot paper would be counted as a valid vote if the stamp appears in multiple boxes but a prominent portion of it is in a particular candidate’s box.

Moreover, multiple stamps on the symbol of one candidate will be considered a valid vote. Stamps on both the symbol and the name of a candidate will also be counted as a valid vote.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/news/2018/07/everything-you-must-know-about-a-valid-ballot-paper-before-you-go-to-vote/