Voting for LG polls held in peace amid tight security

Rawalpindi
The polling for party based local bodies election in Cantonment areas in Rawalpindi like rest of the country were held on Saturday amid tight security. The overall turnout of voters in Rawalpindi cantonment board localities remained low.
This scribe visited various polling stations during the course of the day, but the major influx of voters started after 3:00 p.m. to cast their votes for local body in cantonment localities. The polling staff was present in all polling stations and polling began at 8:00 a.m. and continued till 5 p.m.
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) MNA Malik Ibrar casts his vote in Ward No 4 polling station and showed great satisfaction on peaceful atmosphere.
‘The News’ observed that some people appeared from houses when polling started at 8:00 am and cast their votes but, in the afternoon majority of polling stations remained empty due to hot weather. While, after 3:00 p.m. people started coming to polling stations to cast their votes.
Tight security arrangements were made for the polling. Security officials were checking people coming to cast their votes. Nobody was allowed to use mobile phones in polling stations. There were more than 2,500 police and Rangers deployed in and around different polling stations.
No serious incident of violence was reported. Largely, the people preferred staying indoors while no decline was witnessed in business activity.
Talking to ‘The News’ people said that they were not interested in the local body elections because the government has failed to provide them electricity and gas.
Presiding officers said though the turnout was low but the polling process was carried out peacefully. They said they had entertained a few requests for casting votes on production of other legal documents other than CNICs. Polling agents of different parties did not complain of government involvement or any kind of pressure on the voters. They were satisfied that the polling was conducted according to the rules laid down by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
On the other hand, voters faced different kinds of difficulties in some polling stations where there was neither drinking water nor toilet facilities. Police and Rangers were providing drinking water for voters in severe weather.
District Election Commissioner (DEC) Nadeem Zubair and other high-ranking officials continuously visited some sensitive polling stations in Rawalpindi, to check the arrangements. He ordered the concerned officials to facilitate journalists in coverage of polling. He also directed his staff to provide full cooperation to public in polling matters. Traffic in Rawalpindi and Islamabad remained quite sparse throughout the day. Only a few private transport vehicles were seen on roads, as hundreds of them had already been engaged by the local administration for polls duty.
The overall law and order situation remained peaceful, except some verbal clashes between supporters of different candidates at few places.
Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Chief Executive OfficerFaheem Zafar Khan told media that the turnout of voters was 25 per cent and the people showed less interest to come out of their homes.