First time in history: LBA polls put off over ‘mismanagement’

Lawyers claim biometric voting system failed to function properly

LAHORE: Elections for the top seats at the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) were postponed on Saturday after pandemonium over mismanagement and delays in casting votes via biometric machines that were employed for the first time. The LBA election was put off for the first time in its history as well.

While the contestants claimed the biometric system was not functioning smoothly, the election commissioner claimed otherwise.

A source in the LBA election commission told The Express Tribune that some groups of young lawyers wanted to postpone the election and made hue and cry over the credibility of the biometric machines for vested interests.

He said they started creating problems after the election commission did not allow to 263 voters to cast their votes, as they were not the actual voters according to the list of registered voters provided by the Punjab Bar Council. The votes in question had been registered through biometric credentials.

The source added the mismanagement factor, however, could not be ignored. Lawyers had to stand outside the polling booths for a long time as the process of casting votes was slow inside owing to ‘technical reasons’.

He claimed the company, which installed the biometric system, was asked to provide operators at every machine for making the voting process easier but it was not done. Operators were not deputed at several machines and untrained lawyers had to use the machines, which led to the confusion.

The crowd started increasing at the booths owing to the slow process and some arguments started between lawyers groups of different candidates.

The source alleged some lawyers wanted to get rid of the biometric system and replace it with the old, manual voting system for their vested interests.

Presidential candidates Malik Arshad and Chaudhry Tanveer Akhtar told The Express Tribune that they were satisfied with the postponement of the election as the biometric system had failed.

LBA Election Board Chairman Waqar Hassan Mir said the election was postponed after some lawyers started creating problems when they were barred from casting fraudulent votes. The Punjab Bar Council will constitute a committee to announce the next date for LBA elections, he added.

The Friend’s group led by renowned lawyer Asma Jahangir has fielded Arshad as the presidential candidate while the Professional group led by Hamid Khan has put forward the name of Tanveer. Around 6,686 lawyers registered with the biometric system were to exercise their right of vote to elect the cabinet for the 2017-18 year.

Pundits expect a tough competition between the presidential candidates with Arshad predicted to be the winning candidate but Tanveer’s candidature can also not be ignored. Both the candidates claim to have the support of more than 100 lawyers’ groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2017.