The Elections Act 2017

According to section 61 subsection 1 clauses (a) to (c), the amount may be deposited “(a) in cash with the Returning Officer; or (b) through bank draft drawn in favor of the Returning Officer; or (c) in cash in a specified account with any branch of the National Bank of Pakistan, receipt of which should be produced before the Returning Officer.” Hence, option ‘D’ is correct.

Section 2 point (xxiv) of the Act states that loan “means any loan, advance, credit or finance obtained or written off on or after 31st December, 1985 but shall not include the loan the recovery of which has been stayed by a court or tribunal”. Hence, option ‘A’ is correct.

In urban areas, an electoral area may refer to i) a municipal ward or census block. If there is none of these, then ii) a well-defined Mohallah or a street. But where the ward or census block, Mohallah or street is too big, iii) a well-defined part thereof. Hence, option ‘C’ is correct.

Section 167 clauses (b) and (c) state that a person is guilty of the offence of corruption if he “(b) calls upon or persuades any person to vote, or to refrain from voting, for any candidate on the ground that he belongs to a particular religion, province, community, race, caste, bradari, sect or tribe; (c) causes or attempts to cause any person present and waiting to vote at the polling station to depart without voting.” Hence, option ‘C’ is correct.

Section 97 subsection 2 states that “The Returning Officer shall draw a lot in respect of the returned candidates referred to in sub-section (1) to determine as to who shall serve as Member of the Assembly for the first half of its term of office …”. Hence, option ‘C’ is correct.

The title “Assistant Presidential Officer” is incorrect. The correct term is Assistant Presiding Officer. Only option ‘A’, District Returning Officer, is among those that are counted as election officials, and is hence the correct answer.

Although ‘by-election’ is also a term used to refer to such an election, but the specific spelling/term used in the Act is bye-election, and is hence the correct answer.

Section 103 states that “The Commission may conduct pilot projects for utilization of electronic voting machines and biometric verification system in bye-elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the electronic voting machines and biometric verification system.” Hence, option ‘D’ is correct.

Section 45 clauses (a) and (b) state that a person shall not be enrolled on an electoral roll for any electoral area more than once, and on the electoral rolls for more than one electoral area. Which means neither of the options from ‘A’ and ‘B’ are correct. Hence, option ‘D’ is correct.

According to section 186 clauses (a) and (c) a person shall be guilty of such if he “(a) persuades any person to give his vote … (c) influences in any manner the voting of any person.” Hence, option ‘C’ is correct.