By-polls 2013: No real interest, but some real ballots

Incidents of rigging reported across the country amid lacklustre election.

THATTA/ FAISALABAD/ ISLAMABAD:

There seemed to be very little interest in the by-elections on Thursday as there were reports of a low turnout in polling stations across the country.

Political parties and candidates failed to mobilise voters in the federal capital as the city witnessed its first-ever by-election at one of its two National Assembly constituencies.

According to unofficial estimates, the turnout in NA-48’s 260 polling stations hovered around 30 per cent – just around half of the 59.5 per cent turnout polled in the constituency on general elections on May 11.

Recalling her experience of the general elections, Zovia Arshad, a voter, said last time her polling station was jam-packed and resembled a fish market. “It seems more like a graveyard today”.

Another voter, Raniya Khan, who cast her ballot at a polling station in F-7, said the only thing she liked this time around was finding a parking spot close to the polling station.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm last time. We believed we would be contributing towards a change. But today was just a formality, a duty in fact as a citizen of Pakistan,” she said. “Our politicians should think about contesting from only one constituency,” a Presiding Officer at an F-10 polling station, who requested anonymity, said. “By-elections not only waste the state’s resources, but the low voter turnout also means that essentially only a few people elect the next representative.”

In Lahore, polling was relatively smooth. Elections at one national assembly and three provincial assembly constituencies concluded peacefully at the appointed time of 5 pm. The Acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Tassaduq Jilani visited polling stations and expressed satisfaction at the way polling was being conducted.

However, the turnout, too, was relatively low.

Some people in Karachi’s constituencies up for polls such as Quaidabad did not even know there were by-elections taking place. Only one election office of a political party could be spotted in the area.

Meanwhile, Thatta polling stations too saw a low turnout and enthusiasm of reporters. PML-N MNA Marvi Memon tweeted, “Low turnout this first half of the morning in Thatta NA-237 as per on-ground reports.” At the end of the day, there was an average turnout of 35 per cent of registered voters in Thatta. In Sanghar and Mirpurkhas, there was a turnout of 40 and 45 per cent of registered voters, respectively.

Fake voters caught

An army official has sentenced three policemen including a SHO to up to six months imprisonment for casting fake ballots at Thatta’s polling station of NA-237.

As the Election Commission of Pakistan had given magistrate powers to army officials in electoral constituencies, Major Sajjad gave six-month sentence to SHO Abdul Majeed and a three-month sentence each to constables Ghulam Hussain and Ghulam Nabi for the fake ballots.

The policemen were caught in the wrongdoing at a polling station in Public School, Makli.

After the verdict, the police officers were locked up in the sub-jail at Makli police station.

In Karachi, an assistant presiding officer and a polling agent were apprehended allegedly for casting bogus votes in a polling station in Shah Waliullah Nagar, Orangi Town. Pakistan army personnel caught the assistant presiding officer, Mohammad Bilal, and the polling agent, Mohammad Naveed, at a private school in PS-95. The accused were later handed over to the Rangers for questioning.

The Lahore High Court had also set up control rooms in different constituencies to address election-related complaints. One such complaint was received at Gawalmandi Circular in PP-142, where PTI candidate Malik Waqar Ahmad reported that a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Syed Mukhtar Hussain Shah, went to his hometown and opened a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) election office, forcing people to give votes to the party.

Meanwhile, at NA-83’s polling station No.94 in Faisalabad, PTI workers chanted slogans complaining that their supporters were not allowed to cast their votes by PML-N supporters. The police officers on duty at the polling station also supported the PML-N, they alleged.

The PTI supporters also accused PML-N candidate Mian Abdul Mannan himself and his workers of manhandling those who voted for PTI.

There were no reports of rigging or fighting between rival political groups in NA-48 and some polling staff members thought the military presence was responsible for the discipline.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2013.