Cantonments go to polls today

Political parties see contest as test for vote bank

KARACHI:

The residents of the cantonment areas will cast their votes to elect their civilian representatives on the cantonment boards.

Keeping the sensitivity of the highly charged elections seen as the litmus test of political power of various parties, the head of Clifton Cantonment Board (CBC) has barred members of national and provincial assemblies from visiting cantonment board elections.

The CBC head wrote a letter to the South district DIG police requesting implementation of the law. It said that the Election Commission of Pakistan was trying to hold election in accordance with the code of conduct. Therefore, public office holders may be kept away from the election campaign and visiting of wards. The police must ensure implementation of the law so that elections may be held in a better way.

Polling for the local body elections in 42 wards of six cantonment boards of Karachi will be held today [Sunday].

As many as 343 candidates, including nine women, are contesting in these constituencies while the total number of eligible voters is 466,695. The polling will continue non-stop from 8am to 5pm.

Voters will elect 42 of the 343 candidates. Of these, 238 belong to political and religious parties, while 105 are running as independents.

The total number of registered voters in these constituencies is 466,695 of which 244,317 are male while 222,198 are female voters.

ECP has set up 287 polling stations and 1,115 polling booths for 42 wards. All election materials including ballot papers have also been provided to the presiding officers.

The largest constituency in terms of voters is CBC with 98 candidates in the run, including 66 political and religious and 32 independents in 10 wards. 517 polling booths have been set up in 129 polling stations.

This cantonment board, comprising of Clifton and several other areas including Defense Housing Authority, also has the votes of President Arif Alvi, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, members of the assembly, well-known sportspersons, showbiz personalities and important social figures. There are a total of 2,383 registered votes, of which 104,046 are male and 96,157 are female voters.

Read 19 seats up for grabs in two cantt boards

The second-largest board is Faisal Cantonment where 88 candidates including 59 from political and religious parties and 29 independents are contesting in 10 wards. The number of voters is 167,781 for which 88 polling stations and 352 polling booths have been set up.

Hyderabad Cantt

For the 10 wards of Hyderabad Cantonment Board (HCB), some 35 polling stations consisting of 130 polling booths, with 66 booths for male and 64 for female voters, have been established. As many as 48,965 people are registered to vote, including 27,073 male and 21820 female voters.

As many as 74 candidates of eight political parties besides those contesting in the independent capacity have landed in the electoral fray. There are 54 candidates who are associated with the political parties in addition to 20 independent ones. Four independent candidates retired for the contest on Saturday.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan - whose candidates governed the previous set up of HCB - Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf have fielded candidates in all the 10 wards. Pak Sarzameen Party has eight candidates, Tehreek-e-Allah-o-Akbar seven, proscribe Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan has six, Jamaat-e-Islami two and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz only one.

There are 3,556 registered voters in ward one, 5,483 in ward two, 3,341 in ward three, 3,673 in ward four, 7,121 in ward five, 3,826 in ward six, 6,500 in ward seven, 4,753 in ward eight, 6,610 in ward nine and 3,930 in ward 10. The biggest in terms of the highest number of voters is ward five ward and ward three is the smallest. Around 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the area in CBH is densely populated with scarce civic facilities, marred by lack of sanitation.

FAFEN to deploy observers

The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) will deploy 120 legally-accredited, duly-trained and non-partisan observers to observe the local government elections in 39 cantonment boards across the country being held on Sunday, September 12, 2021.

As many as 74 male and 46 female observers will observe the voting and counting processes at around 460 polling stations- almost 30% of total polling stations set up ECP for these elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2021.