Starting slowly, polling picked up in afternoon

LAHORE :The polling process for NA-120 bye-elections which remained slow at most of the polling stations during early hours on Sunday started gaining momentum in the afternoon.

The voters, especially male voters, thronged the polling stations in later half of the day which resulted in long queues outside many polling stations particularly in Ravi Road and Krishan Nagar areas. 

An extraordinary influx of the voters was observed before the polling time ended owing to which many late comers failed to exercise their right to vote. At most of the polling stations, media persons despite having accredited card by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were denied entry and where granted they were not allowed to carry their cellphones inside. However, the media persons were allowed to talk to the staff at the polling stations.

When asked as to why journalists were being denied entry, the deployed officials responded that on the orders of their high-ups, they could not grant entry to journalists inside the polling stations. One officer said the message vis-à-vis visit of media persons to observe the polling process was not communicated properly owing to which there was confusion. “However, the same has been resolved now,” he added.

During a visit to City District Government Boys High School, Islampura a good turnout of female voters was observed. Sehar, a polling agent, said there were three booths for female voters at the polling station and added the turnout improved in the afternoon. Separately, three booths were set up for male voters. In another section of the same school, two more booths were set up for female voters. According to other polling agents a tough contest was expected from this polling station.

At a polling station set up at Govt Islami High School, Sant Nagar, long queues of male voters were seen inside the school premises unlike the female voters who were quite less in number as compared to men.

On main Dev Smaj Road near the Commissioner’s office almost four different polling stations were set up on each side of the road which caused constant traffic mess in the area almost all the day despite deployment of traffic police.

Strict security measures were seen at every polling station with police deployment outside the station and considerable presence of Army jawans inside the premises. Similarly, a number of Rangers vehicles kept patrolling the entire constituency in order to avoid any untoward incident. The political workers of different parties, particularly of PML-N and PTI, kept roaming the constituency while raising slogans in favour of their parties and leaders.

Muhammad Dilbar, once a PPP die-hard supporter, said after Benazir Bhutto he left the party and started supporting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He was of the view, PTI would win the elections. Javaid, a PML-N supporter, however observed that victory in the NA-120 was not easy for PTI. “Yes, they have support in the constituency but not like that of
PML-N”, he added. Majority of the camps in the entire constituency were set up by PTI and PML-N followed by Milli Muslim League (not registered with the ECP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Around Data Darbar, a considerable number of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) camps were seen at Bilal Ganj area. Similarly, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had set up a few camps only.

The PPP failed to attract Lahorites particularly the youth in the by-election of NA-120 as only a few old aged people (jayalas) were observed engaging the voters to cast their votes in favor of their party.

Surpassingly, PPP even failed to establish their polling camps outside majority of the polling stations and only a few jayalas, who have seen the era of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, were seen relaxing at those camps.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former President Asif Ali Zardari had spent quite a few days in Lahore in an effort to revive their party in Punjab but it seemed their efforts couldn’t bear any fruit as yet.

Mian Ghulam Nabi and Akhtar Hussain, having association with the PPP since its inception in 1960s, told The News that their party couldn’t attract the youth as yet but their leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was trying hard to improve the on ground situation in this regard. They said youth was following what was being told to them by the media, which was running biased reports about their party.

Our rivals have spent huge money to vow the voters in their favor, they claimed, adding, soon PPP would surprise everyone in politics. We didn’t arrange any lunch or any other facility for the voters like the other parties did on Sunday.

On the other hand, it was observed that majority of the camps of the PTI and PML-N remained crowded throughout the day and every color of electioneering was seen there. Youth and females were seen in large number at the polling camps of both the parties. At 39 polling stations out of total 220 the facility of biometric verification of the voters’ CNIC was also provided as a pilot project.

PTI had developed a mobile app for NA-120 which was available to the party’s supporters to check polling related data of the voters. They provided instant support to voters irrespective of their party affiliation to check their polling booths. Traditionally this task is performed manually by checking ECP’s provided voters’ list.