Government terms polls a success, voters vexed over mismanagement

Information minister praises the army for heightened security.

PESHAWAR:

With special thanks offered to the Pakistan Army for their cooperation, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) caretaker government on Saturday breathed a sigh of relief after successfully conducting the May 11 polls in the province.

“Despite concerns shown by various quarters regarding violent extremist attacks, the day passed well enough,” said Mossarat Qadeem, spokesperson for the K-P caretaker government, during a press briefing. “People turned up in large numbers to vote.”

Qadeem appreciated the role the Pakistan Army played in implementing tight security arrangements. “The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ensured impartial and peaceful elections,” she said, adding despite 6, 212 polling stations being declared sensitive out of a total of 9,284, the caretaker government’s arrangements proved effective. Up to 81,000 police personnel were appointed to man polling stations across K-P on May 11 at a cost of Rs160 million, she informed.



“The turnout seems to be good as I personally visited eight polling stations, but we cannot say anything regarding the turnout percentage right now,” she said in response to a question.

Qadeem admitted there were instances of complaints registered at certain polling stations, particularly in Dir where women were banned from voting. She, however, claimed timely notice of the situations resulted in solutions.

Regarding formation of the future government, she said the caretaker setup in K-P was ready to hand over power at the earliest.

Speaking on the occasion, K-P caretaker interior minister Fiaz Toru said a well-coordinated plan of intelligence sharing along with information being passed between various departments had allowed elections to be conducted efficiently. “Only 72 incidents occurred in K-P, including scuffles at polling stations and explosions caused by improvised explosive devices,” said Toru, adding 10 explosive devices were defused in various localities on the eve of Election Day.

“With respect to the number of polling stations in the province, the incident occurrence rate is no more than 0.5%,” he maintained. “Sealing the border with Afghanistan also helped, as every chapter of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan remained unsuccessful in their designs,” claimed Toru.



“Out of frustration, two mortar and two rocket attacks were made from Kunar province in Afghanistan on Shamikot and Nusrat Darra in Dir,” said Toru, adding no casualties were reported in the attacks. Toru further said rockets which were fired at Kurrum Agency from across the border did not cause any harm either.

The other side

In stark contrast to the government’s assertions, several voters reportedly faced issues due to mismanagement and a lack of polling staff at a number of stations in Peshawar.

In a polling station for women located in Government College Peshawar, two presiding officers and one assistant presiding officer were absent for the entire day. “We informed concerned officials at 7:45am that we were lacking polling officials, and requested they provide additional personnel,” said Mera Gul, a presiding officer at the college. “The concerned officials did not pay any attention to our request,” she complained.

Additionally, there were no women police constables at Government High School Ghari Qamardin, where women were casting their ballots. At the Hazar Khwani polling station, ballot boxes were set up in a small room which was flooded with agents associated with various political parties.

In Government High School Faqirabad, a suspicious car parked near the polling station created panic among voters. After a considerable period of time, the official on duty called the bomb disposable squad which inspected the car and moved it away from the polling station.

Similarly, there were no proper arrangements in place in NA-4, Government Girls School Badhaber, where no queue was established to streamline the process. The situation resulted in harsh words being exchanged between voters and the polling staff.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.