Army sweeps in to save elections, but voters fear they might be too late

Polling staff also happy with presence of army but say turnout was low.

KARACHI: Army kept a hawk’s eye at 43 polling stations of NA-250 on Sunday to ensure that the re-polling was completed without a hitch. Many voters, however, felt that they might have been too late.

“Army should have been deployed inside the polling station on May 11. When they have been called for the re-polls, why couldn’t the Election Commission of Pakistan deploy them on the day of elections so that rigging had not taken place?” complained 40-year-old Rahim Ullah.

Rahim was a resident of Aram Bagh, which is one of the most populated areas and has a majority of Urdu-speaking residents.

For another man, who came to cast his vote at the Usman Memorial School at Gari Khata with his 10-year-old son, the presence of army personnel made all the difference.  “We have come here freely and without fear as we know that in the presence of the army, no illegal activities can take place,” he said, adding that ECP should have deployed the law enforcers earlier on May 11.

Law enforcers come together

As policemen looked after the security outside the Jamshad Ahmed Khan Lower Secondary School polling station, Rangers and army personnel were deployed inside the polling station and on the rooftops.

No one was allowed to park their vehicles near the premises of the polling stations and those without their original Computerised National Identity Card were barred from going inside.

Sial Badshah, 40, a resident of the Hijrat Colony made his way to the Islamia Colligate Public Secondary School Hijrat Colony with a photocopy of his CNIC which he lost before the election but could not cast his vote. “I lost my card three days back and now the presiding officer is asking for the original CNIC or the FIR slip for the CNIC,” Badshah told The Express Tribune. Badshah was among those unfortunate voters who could not cast his vote on May 11 either, although he waited for six hours.

People of the Hijrat Colony also complained about their votes being changed. “I could not cast my vote the last time and now they’re saying it has been misplaced - I have no idea where my vote is registered,” said 65-year-old Wazir Badshah, a resident of the Hijrat colony who lost his right leg and hand in his childhood when he was hit by train.

The polling staff was also happy with the presence of army officers, as shared by Naseem Akhtar, an assistant presiding officer. “On May 11 we had no security and political parties’ workers were stopping the polling from time to time,” she said. “Today [Sunday], however, we felt quite safe and calm but the turnout wasn’t as good.”

On-duty

An army official, on the condition of anonymity, spoke about his experience on the day of the re-polls. “Media knows best about why we have been deployed,” he said with a wry smile. “No one can enter here without our permission - our main focus is to maintain law and order.” Replying to a question about democracy and casting his vote, he said “I did not cast my vote although we had the facility to vote through postal ballots. But there is no leader who I think will be able to solve the problems of Pakistan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.