Late start at women polling stations

Polling at most women polling station started late on Thursday due to the late supply of election material in Peshawar.

In some areas the staff also reached very late affecting the process of polling.

Local residents told The Express Tribune that there was no transport system for the female polling staff as a result most of them if not all reached very late.

“There was no transport arrangement for the female staff who had to come from far flung areas for duty as well as delay in the delivery of election materials,” said a local resident of the walled city of Peshawar.

On the other hand, the non-availability of policewomen in sufficient numbers also created problems at women polling stations as policemen had been deployed at most of the polling stations and they didn’t carry out the body search despite clear cut instruction due to the security threats.

“Ladies police is not available in the required numbers so policemen have been deployed in their place instead and they could not body search women voters due to local traditions,” said a supporter of a local candidate, adding that there were security threats but still police were not able to body search all women voters.

“There is a great enthusiasm among the women voters especially PTI supporters and they also waited in long lines outside the polling booths for their turn but it is unfortunate that policewomen were not available in sufficient enough number to handle this rush,” he said, adding that luckily there was no untoward incident but government and police should have arranged women guards as police could not supply the required number of policewomen.

The disruption of mobile phone signals and mobile internet also created a lot many problems for the general public and especially candidates who were not able to be in touch with each other.

“Previously government said that there will be no mobile internet black out but all of sudden in the morning we discovered that there is no internet which caused us a lot many problems,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th 2024.