By-elections: Largely peaceful polls held in K-P
Women barred in some Nowshera stations amid low turnout
PHOTO: EXPRESS
PESHAWAR:
Amid sluggish polling activity, by-elections on nine provincial assembly and one national assembly seat in the province were mostly peaceful on Sunday.
Stringent security measures had been taken for the by-polls in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) though it did not do anything to bolster overall turnout figures, which were far below the levels of the July 25 general elections.
Peshawar
With polling taking place on the weekly holiday, people did not start streaming to polling stations until 11am.
In Peshawar, two candidates were in contention for PK-78 — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Irfan Khan and Awami National Party’s (ANP) Samar Bilour.
Most of the other candidates from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had withdrawn their candidates in favour of the ANP candidate given how she was the widow of ANP leader Haroon Bilour. Haroon was a candidate for PK-78 but had been killed in a suicide bomb attack on July 11, just 14 days before the general elections. The attack claimed Haroon and 22 others while injuring 60 people.
On Sunday, a tough contest was expected between the ANP and the PTI.
While the male turnout picked up as the day wore on, men flooding some old city polling stations, the female turnout remained low with some female polling stations bearing a deserted look.
Despite that, a newlywed couple cast their vote at a polling station in the St. John School in Kohati area of the provincial capital.
The polling process was smooth at most polling stations except for one in Zargarabad area where the voters’ list did not have names of 900 voters. As a result, the voting process was provisionally suspended but resumed after 1pm.
While largely violence-free, a scuffle did break out at a polling station in PK-78 when activists from the PTI and the ANP squared off, pulling voters towards their camps.
Nowshera
Federal Defense Minister Pervez Khattak had won three seats here during the general elections. However, he retained his national assembly seat, relinquishing provincial assembly seats PK-61 and PK-64. The PTI awarded tickets for the seat to his son Ibrahim Khattak and brother Liaquat Khattak respectively.
On PK-61, Ibrahim faced competition from ANP’s Noor Alam Khan while in PK-64, Liaquat was running against ANP ticket holder Shahid Khattak. There were reports that following an alleged agreement between the PTI and ANP camps, women had been barred from casting their vote in two polling stations.
After reports of the bar spread, the provincial election commission took notice of the incident and the Nowshera deputy commissioner intervened in the matter.
The district administration later engaged some local religious scholars, requesting them to make announcements so that women go out and vote. Some women then turned up to vote after 3pm.
Swabi
In Swabi, where National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had vacated his provincial seat, PK-44 Swabi-II was up for grabs.
Three candidates were in the running for the seat, including former PTI national assembly member and Qaiser’s brother Aqibullah. He is up against Ghulam Hassan Khan of ANP and independent Shehzad Ali Khan.
On Sunday, local election observer said that no women had turned up in the Saleem Khan area, at least until midday. Overall women turnout was also quite poor.
Qaiser, who had turned up to cast his vote in his ‘home’ constituency, conceded that the turnout was quite low. However, he said that this was routine during by-elections but hoped that the situation would improve as the day wore on.
Mardan
After ANP leader Ameer Haider Hoti retained his national assembly seat, vacating his provincial assembly seat, two candidates were in contention for PK-53 Mardan.
The ANP backed Ahmed Khan, who has won this seat on two previous occasions. He is facing new candidate Abdul Salam.
Security had been beefed up at a few polling stations in the area since they had been declared as most-sensitive.
Unlike other constituencies, the turnout for both sexes was mixed with normal levels seen at a few polling stations while at a few others the observers raised an eyebrow.
Dera Ismail Khan
Two seats were up for grabs in Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) including PK-97 — which fell vacant after Federal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur retained his NA seat . PK-99 had fallen vacant after PTI’s candidate Ikramullah Gandapur was killed in a suicide bomb attack just days before the election.
On PK-97, the federal minister’s brother Faisal Amin is in the running against PPP’s Farhan Malik and four others.
On PK-99, 11 candidates are in the running including Ikramullah’s son Aghaz. Others in the running are Mualana Obaidur Rehman, the brother of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Security was also on high alert since most of the polling stations had been termed as sensitive owing to a history of sectarian violence.
Swat
Polling was held on two provincial seats in Swat including PK-3 and PK-7.
PK-3 had fallen vacant after Haider Ali retained his NA seat. PK-7 became available after Dr Amjid Ali of PTI retained the other seat he had won.
Bannu
NA-35 Bannu fell vacate after its incumbent, Prime Minister Imran Khan, retained his seat from Mianwali to head into the national assembly.
The seat is now being contested by Zahid Akram Durrani, the son of former federal housing minister Akram Khan Durrani on an MMA ticket. The ANP, PML-N and PPP also have their hats in contention for the seat.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2018.
Amid sluggish polling activity, by-elections on nine provincial assembly and one national assembly seat in the province were mostly peaceful on Sunday.
Stringent security measures had been taken for the by-polls in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) though it did not do anything to bolster overall turnout figures, which were far below the levels of the July 25 general elections.
Peshawar
With polling taking place on the weekly holiday, people did not start streaming to polling stations until 11am.
In Peshawar, two candidates were in contention for PK-78 — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Irfan Khan and Awami National Party’s (ANP) Samar Bilour.
Most of the other candidates from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had withdrawn their candidates in favour of the ANP candidate given how she was the widow of ANP leader Haroon Bilour. Haroon was a candidate for PK-78 but had been killed in a suicide bomb attack on July 11, just 14 days before the general elections. The attack claimed Haroon and 22 others while injuring 60 people.
On Sunday, a tough contest was expected between the ANP and the PTI.
While the male turnout picked up as the day wore on, men flooding some old city polling stations, the female turnout remained low with some female polling stations bearing a deserted look.
Despite that, a newlywed couple cast their vote at a polling station in the St. John School in Kohati area of the provincial capital.
The polling process was smooth at most polling stations except for one in Zargarabad area where the voters’ list did not have names of 900 voters. As a result, the voting process was provisionally suspended but resumed after 1pm.
While largely violence-free, a scuffle did break out at a polling station in PK-78 when activists from the PTI and the ANP squared off, pulling voters towards their camps.
Nowshera
Federal Defense Minister Pervez Khattak had won three seats here during the general elections. However, he retained his national assembly seat, relinquishing provincial assembly seats PK-61 and PK-64. The PTI awarded tickets for the seat to his son Ibrahim Khattak and brother Liaquat Khattak respectively.
On PK-61, Ibrahim faced competition from ANP’s Noor Alam Khan while in PK-64, Liaquat was running against ANP ticket holder Shahid Khattak. There were reports that following an alleged agreement between the PTI and ANP camps, women had been barred from casting their vote in two polling stations.
After reports of the bar spread, the provincial election commission took notice of the incident and the Nowshera deputy commissioner intervened in the matter.
The district administration later engaged some local religious scholars, requesting them to make announcements so that women go out and vote. Some women then turned up to vote after 3pm.
Swabi
In Swabi, where National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had vacated his provincial seat, PK-44 Swabi-II was up for grabs.
Three candidates were in the running for the seat, including former PTI national assembly member and Qaiser’s brother Aqibullah. He is up against Ghulam Hassan Khan of ANP and independent Shehzad Ali Khan.
On Sunday, local election observer said that no women had turned up in the Saleem Khan area, at least until midday. Overall women turnout was also quite poor.
Qaiser, who had turned up to cast his vote in his ‘home’ constituency, conceded that the turnout was quite low. However, he said that this was routine during by-elections but hoped that the situation would improve as the day wore on.
Mardan
After ANP leader Ameer Haider Hoti retained his national assembly seat, vacating his provincial assembly seat, two candidates were in contention for PK-53 Mardan.
The ANP backed Ahmed Khan, who has won this seat on two previous occasions. He is facing new candidate Abdul Salam.
Security had been beefed up at a few polling stations in the area since they had been declared as most-sensitive.
Unlike other constituencies, the turnout for both sexes was mixed with normal levels seen at a few polling stations while at a few others the observers raised an eyebrow.
Dera Ismail Khan
Two seats were up for grabs in Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) including PK-97 — which fell vacant after Federal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur retained his NA seat . PK-99 had fallen vacant after PTI’s candidate Ikramullah Gandapur was killed in a suicide bomb attack just days before the election.
On PK-97, the federal minister’s brother Faisal Amin is in the running against PPP’s Farhan Malik and four others.
On PK-99, 11 candidates are in the running including Ikramullah’s son Aghaz. Others in the running are Mualana Obaidur Rehman, the brother of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Security was also on high alert since most of the polling stations had been termed as sensitive owing to a history of sectarian violence.
Swat
Polling was held on two provincial seats in Swat including PK-3 and PK-7.
PK-3 had fallen vacant after Haider Ali retained his NA seat. PK-7 became available after Dr Amjid Ali of PTI retained the other seat he had won.
Bannu
NA-35 Bannu fell vacate after its incumbent, Prime Minister Imran Khan, retained his seat from Mianwali to head into the national assembly.
The seat is now being contested by Zahid Akram Durrani, the son of former federal housing minister Akram Khan Durrani on an MMA ticket. The ANP, PML-N and PPP also have their hats in contention for the seat.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2018.