The stage has been set for the National Assembly’s Lahore constituency NA-133 By-Polls and Returning Officer (RO) Syed Basit Ali Shah has uploaded the RTS app into the Presiding Officers’ (POs) mobile phones for getting speedy results.
According to the 24News HD TV channel, the by-elections in the Lahore constituency would be conducted on Sunday, December 05 and the time for campaigning in the constituency would be ended at midnight today.
Usage of RTS Application
In the NA-133 Lahore by-elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to use the RTS app as it has already been successfully implemented in some other elections including NA-4 (Peshawar) and PS-114 (Karachi).
In NA-4, the POs entered the results of their polling stations into the application along with the picture of Form-XIV by using a specialized mobile phone application with was transmitted to the ECP Server.
Observing the previous good experience, the ECP has decided to use the same app in the NA-133 to get results fast from the POs.
The POs will send a photo of the result at the polling station to the RO through the app. The location of the PO will also be known along with the results through the app.
The ECP has also given special training to the POs about to use of the RTS app accurately.
No One Apply for Postal Balloting
It is strange that voters like military men, civil servants, and inmates have not shown their interest to get a postal ballot to use their right of vote in the by-election in NA-133.
Though the NA-133 RO has printed 3,000 postal ballot papers on the instructions of the ECP but surprisingly, voters did not show their interest as Basit has not received a single request for ballot papers.
The RO Basit said that the Ballot papers could be applied for till November 19 but no one applied for using his or her right to vote in by-polls through the ballot papers.
Security Plan Of The Polling Day
The law enforcement forces have chalked out the security plan for NA-133 by-elections and more than 2,000 officers and personnel will be deployed in the constituency for maintaining law and order.
On the polling day, six SPs and fourteen DSPs will perform their duties under the supervision of SSP Operations and 44 SHOs, 52 Dolphins, and seven Quick Response Teams (QRT) will be deployed in the constituency.
Polling Station Arrangements
As many as 254 polling stations have been set up for NA-133 by-elections. There are set up 200 separate polling stations for men and women, and 54 combined polling stations to facilitate the voters.
Following the security issues, Category-A has 22 polling stations, B has 198 and C has 34 while a Special Control Room has also been established at the Graduate College for Women's Township.
The CCPO Lahore said that foolproof security will be provided at all the polling stations in NA-133 and voters should be allowed to enter after security checking. He said that the security situation in the constituency would also be monitored by cameras.
Electioneering Campaigns of Candidates
There is only one day left till the by-election in the NA-133 constituency of Lahore and the electioneering campaigns of all candidates would be ended today at midnight.
After the disqualification of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Jamsheed Cheema and covering candidate Musarrat Cheema, there are only two mainstream parties candidates—Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Chaudhry Aslam Gill and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Shaista Pervez Malik in the contest.
Both the candidates are running their campaigns and there is being expected tough competition between the PPP and the PML-N.
The PPP and Awami Tehreek Pakistan (ATP) of Allama Tahir-ul-Qadri held a joint rally started from PECO Road to Hamdard Chowk on the last day. A large number of workers from both parties were participating in the rally.
Reporters: Hasnain Aulakh, Abid Chaudhry, Rao Dilshad