Sahibzada Saifur Rehman logged in 1,160 votes while Unity Group’s Rana Mateen managed 1,070 votes. Daud Barry won the seat of vice-president.
The Unity Group won three seats on the managing committee. Malik Muhammad Amjad Khan, an independent candidate from J-Block won while an independent candidate from G-Block, Mateenul Haq Khan, lost. The Unity Group has levelled accusation of rigging against its opponents.
Rana Mateen accused the Model Town Group of massive rigging. He said votes of deceased members, one voter casting votes twice and votes from defaulters were the reasons behind his opponent’s victory. Mateen also said his group had asked for a re-count.
Rehman said the elections were fair. He said his group would live up to their promises to the residents.
The polling was held on the Divisional Public School campus. Families were in attendance in the school’s courtyard to support their candidate.
Campaign camps were set outside the school to rally support from the voters. Supporters of both groups received voters at the gate.
The polling which was scheduled to start at 8 am started with a delay of one-and-a-half hour due to a problem in printing. A Model Town Society employee said both groups were upset when they discovered an incorrect symbol had been printed on the forms. He said new ballot papers had to be printed. Due to the delay, one hour and thirty five extra minutes was allowed towards the end. Former city nazim Mian Amir Mehmood also cast his vote (He told reporters that he was supporting the Model Town Group).
Model Town Residents Association (MTRA) president Amir Bakht Azam said he was not hopeful that the group elected would do much good as millions of rupees had been spent on the election. He said the MTRA would keep an alert watch over the Model Town Group and not let any embezzlement or other corruption go unchallenged.
Wajahat, a Model Town resident, who was supporting the Model Town Group, told The Express Tribune that he had never witnessed this amount of enthusiasm about elections. He also wondered why so much money had been spent on this election.
Imran, another resident of MTS, said he was happy to see that the elections went peacefully. He had supported the Unity Group. He said that Model Town Group had spent millions on their campaign and feared that now they would try to ‘earn’ that money back.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2012.
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