Polling concludes in Khushab by-elections

KHUSHAB:

The polling for by-elections in Punjab Assembly constituency PP-84 (Khushab) concluded on Wednesday evening.

The seat fell vacant due to the death of PML-N lawmaker Mohammad Waris Kallo, who had won the elections in 2018 with 66,775 votes.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the total number of registered voters in the constituency are 292,687.

There are 155,104 male and 137,583 female voters. A total of 229 polling stations have been set-up in the constituency (27 for male, 26 for female and 176 joint).

About 43 polling stations had been declared sensitive whereas about 14 polling stations have been declared highly sensitive with respect to security concerns and 172 normal.

More than 2,800 police and 500 Rangers personnel had been deployed in the constituency for the polling day.

In addition, Punjab Election Commissioner Ghulam Israr Khan formed 10 monitoring teams to monitor the situation whereas CCTV cameras are also installed at all sensitive polling stations.

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The provincial election commissioner appealed to the people to come to the polling stations without any fear.

Earlier it was reported that 16 nomination papers were received for the by-elections, of which one was rejected, while six candidates withdrew their nominations.

The candidates include Ali Hussain Khan from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Mohammad Moazzam Sher from Pakistan Muslim League-N, Ghulam Habib Ahmed from Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Amjad Raza, Aurangzeb, Imran Haider Khan and Mohammad Ilyas Khan as independent candidates and Hafiz Muhammad Asghar Ali from the recently banned TLP.

Khurshid Alam has been appointed District Returning Officer and Shakeel Ahmed as Returning Officer. The constituency covers three tehsils of Khushab district, Nurpur Thal, Quaidabad and Khushab.

In addition, a focal person of the district administration will accompany the polling record of each station to the office of the returning officer.

Control rooms had been set up to monitor the electoral process. Local people would be able to register complaints on the contact number of the control room.