Local government: Polling for final phase concludes peacefully

Residents of 12 districts vote to elect their representatives

JHANG/ DERA GHAZI KHAN/ BAHAWALPUR/ MULTAN/ LAHORE:

Polling in the third and final phase of local government elections in the province concluded on Saturday.

Polling remained peaceful overall though isolated incidents of clashes were reported from several parts areas. Polling stations opened at 7:30am and closed at 5:30pm.

Residents of Layyah, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rawalpindi, Jhang, Khushab, Multan, Sialkot, Narowal, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur had gone to the polls on Saturday.

In a polling station in Gangaal, Sialkot, polling was suspended for some time after a scuffle broke out between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers. In Narowal’s Chak Qazziaan, seven people were injured when rivals threw stones at each other.

As many as 5,200 hopefuls were in the run for chairmen and vice chairman and 31,848 for general councillor seats.

The ECP had set up 14,012 polling stations.

Several minor clashes were reported in Jhang. Polling was suspended in at least 13 polling stations due to altercations between rival groups.

In ward 31 of the Jhang Municipal Committee supporters of PML-N candidate Sheikh Muhammad Younus and independent candidate Master Saeed clashed. A woman was injured in the incident. Polling was then suspended there for 30 minutes.

Unidentified men several shots at the house of a leader of Rah-i-Haq group running for union council chairman. Police said two people had been detained and were being interrogated. In Union Council 76 of Ahmad Pur Sial, polling agents beat up a policeman after an argument. Minor clashes also took place in Block Shah, Babrana and other areas.

A bride and a groom cast their votes on their way to their wedding.

Musarrat Parveen, a resident of Mohallah Sultan Wala, and her husband reached the polling station in Ward 27 established in Government Girls High School and their vote.

Talking to newsmen, Parveen said she was returning from a beauty parlour and had decided on the way to the wedding hall that she wanted to vote.

“Today I will move to Faisalabad. This is the last time I vote in my home town,” she said.

She told that after marriage she will go to Faisalabad and this may be her last vote in district Jhang.

Violations of the code of conduct were reported in several union councils of Bahawalpur. Polling started at 7.30am. The district administration removed camps of several parties which had been set up too close to the polling stations before voters were allowed in.

Clashes between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) workers were reported in union councils 12, 14 and 15. In Hasilpur’s Union Council 5, Ward 4, elections were suspended when it was discovered that the ballot papers had been incorrectly printed.

The RPO’s spokesman said polling had concluded peacefully in Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan. He said no major breakdown of law and order been reported. He said 1,500 licensed arms had been submitted voluntarily to police.

In UC Khair Muhammad, Faizabad, a presiding officer and his team were arrested over charges of partiality. A police team had searched the polling station following a complaint and had recovered 800 fake ballot papers stamped in support of a Pakistan Peoples Party panel from Presiding Officer Faqeer Ahmed. The police also arrested a man carrying a fake press card. In Tabasum Shaheed, police arrested a man who burnt some ballot papers at a polling station.

In Muzaffargarh, nearly 60 villagers of Binda Sargana took boats to cross River Chenab as their polling station was across the river.

Muhammad Yousuf, a voter of Maqsoodpur village, told newsmen that 10 families had hired four boats to reach other side of Chenab to cast their votes in the local government election Chak Farazi union council.

In Dera Ghazi Khan, three people including an Elite Force official were injured when a scuffle broke out between supporters of a PML-N candidate and an independent.

In Union Council 54, two people were injured in a similar clash.

Polling was suspended for 30 minutes in a polling station at Kot Chattha after a fight broke out between rival groups.

At a polling station in Taunsa, ballot papers arrived at 11am. In Taunsa’s Union Council 8, Ward 2 and 3, ballot papers were found to have carried incorrect symbols

In Multan’s UC-58, a candidate for the seat of general councillor manhandled presiding officer and polling staff. The candidate attempted to sprinkle red chillies in the eyes of the presiding officer and to run away with the ballot box. Police arrested him on the spot.

In UC-41, 10 people were reported injured in a scuffle between supporters of the PTI and PML-N. Pakistan Army was called in to break the scuffle.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2015.