I waited five hours in a queue to cast my vote and in the end was unable to do so
ISLAMABAD: I am a voter from polling station Jani Buriro, UC Layari, Taluka Kot Diji of district Khairpur, Sindh. My heart bleeds as I wonder whom to lodge my complaint with. I did call the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) helpline number on the day of the LG polls and my complaint was noted, but all in vain. My complaint is that I waited five hours in a queue to cast my vote and in the end was unable to do so as I, along with hundreds of other voters, were told that time had run out and that we could not cast our votes. Being a law-abiding citizen, it is my responsibility to follow the ECP code of conduct regarding the timing of the entire process but I cannot help but wonder — were ECP regulations only applicable to laymen? It repeatedly noticed that the candidates of the ruling party and their sympathisers were constantly breaching ECP laws by taking their sponsored voters inside the booth to cast votes in their favour. It seemed that the electoral process was being controlled by the MNA and the MPA of the constituency.
It was astonishing to see the harassment of females, who were being bullied into voting for the ‘arrow’. There were rumours doing the rounds that secret cameras and electronic chips had been installed in the booth to detect whether the voter is voting in favour of the arrow or not. If not, then those individuals would be blocked from the Benazir Income Support Programme. While these rumours may have been entirely unfounded, they did have an impact on voting patterns. The election staff was nonchalant, lazy and ineffective. They stopped the polling for 30 minutes during the ‘lunch break’ — an action directly in breach of the ECP code of conduct. I noticed all this while I was waiting in line for five hours. It’s a pity that the nation’s ruling elite announces an ‘unchallenged’ victory after having conducted elections by harassing poor people. The ECP is requested to introduce an electronic voting system to get rid of the current ineffective system, which results in the ‘election’ of failed representatives.
Salaar Lateef
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2015.
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