Cantonments go to LB polls today after 17 years

ISLAMABAD: A total of 1,151 candidates will run for the local bodies election in 199 wards of 42 cantonment boards on party basis after a gap of 17 years today.
There are around 1.87 million registered voters in the cantonments countrywide. The only cantonment board where the electoral exercise is not being conducted is Ormara, Balochistan.While there are 610 independents, 18 political parties have also fielded 541 candidates.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is in the lead with 137 candidates, followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz with 128, Pakistan People’s Party with 89 and Jamaat-e-Islami with 74 candidates.
The MQM and Pakistan Awami Tehreek of Dr. Tahirul Qadri have both fielded 27 candidates each.Fourteen candidates have already returned unopposed. They include two each from the PTI and MQM and one from the PML-N, while the rest are independents.
Karachi leads with 32 wards followed by Lahore with 20 wards. There is a feeling that the PTI may give a tough time to the ruling PML-N, particularly in Rawalpindi and Lahore and other parts of the Punjab.
Of the 1,225 polling stations, 130 have been declared highly sensitive, 310 sensitive and the remaining 785 as normal.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already a slightly amended code of conduct for the LB polls.Political parties and their candidates have been asked to openly condemn violence and terrorism in their campaigns.
The code was been issued after discarding the earlier document released on March 20 this year and the Election Commission wished that political parties and their candidates and supporters strictly abide by it.
Nearly two million ballot papers have been transported to respective destinations under tight security. Polling will continue without break from 8am to 5pm. In one go, the ECP took direct action against three returning officers — executive engineer Pesco Nowshera, executive engineer Nowshera Cantt and executive engineer Sui Gas — for allegedly not assisting the district election commission staff in poll-related matters.
In addition to ordering disciplinary action, the three returning officers have been directed to appear before the ECP on April 30.Any government department and its staff are bound to assist and cooperate with the ECP in carrying out poll-related duties under Article 220 and Article 204 that provides for initiation of contempt of court proceedings against those, who one way or the other, defy the Article 220.
“These returning officers were not cooperating with the commission with regard to the voters lists, details of polling stations and sending lists for poll staff training and hence impeded the functioning of the official duty of the commission,” the ECP official said.
The ECP has also pushed for more powers in the proposed electoral reforms. In another development, the Punjab Police have recalled transfer orders of two DSPs, which were issued after the issuance of schedule for the local bodies polls in cantonments. The Punjab Election Commissioner, Zafar Iqbal Malik, had asked the provincial government for the withdrawal of transfer orders of police officers.