Cantonment board elections: polling time ends, counting underway across Pakistan

The polling time in 41 cantonment boards across Pakistan on Sunday ended at 5:00 pm and the counting of ballot papers has started, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The polling has been conducted across the country with 1,559 candidates in the field in 219 wards of cantonment boards. The voting began at 8am and continued until 5pm without any interruption.

As many as 2,197,741 people are eligible to exercise their right of vote amid tight security measures led by Rangers, FC and police forces.

The number of male voters are 1,154,551 while the female voters are numbered at 1,043,190. As many as 1,644 polling stations and 5,080 polling booths have been set up to facilitate the voters. 

The Election Commission has set up a complaint centre at its secretariat for effective monitoring of the elections. For any complaint these phone numbers can be reached: 051-9204402 and 9204403.

Elections are being held in 41 out of the 42 cantonment board elections as voting did not take place in four of the five wards of Kamra Cantonment Board due to dispute on the demarcation of the constituencies. Polling was also not held in one each ward of Rawalpindi and Panu Aqil. Seven candidates have been elected unopposed.

Most of the candidates — 659 — were independent, while as many as 876 belonged to different political parties. The ruling PTI has fielded the most candidates — 180.

Similarly, the PML-N has fielded 143, PPP 112, Jamaat-i-Islami 104, Allaho Akbar Tehreek 84, MQM-P 42, PSP 35, PML-Q 34 and JUI-F 25 candidates.

Meanwhile, in 20 of Punjab's cantonment boards, four candidates — two each from Multan and Attock — have been elected unopposed, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said. Mohammad Salman Iqbal, Saima Aashiq, Mohammad Yaqub Nasir, and Mohammad Sadiq have been elected unopposed as councilors, the ECP said.

As many as 923 candidates will take part in elections across Punjab. Therefore, of the 114 of Punjab's cantonment boards, polling will take place in 110, the Election Commission said.

It is pertinent to mention here that not a single woman candidate is contesting elections in Lahore. However, 357 polling stations have been set up for 606,628 voters in the city. 269 candidates are contesting elections for 20 wards in Lahore. Out of the total, 241 polling stations have been declared sensitive and 44 most sensitive. 

In Karachi, the six cantonment boards include Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC), Cantonment Board Faisal (CBF), Cantonment Board Manora, Cantonment Board Malir, Cantonment Board Korangi, and Cantonment Board Karachi.

In Karachi, the polling was underway in 42 wards of six cantonment boards. A total 350 candidates were contesting elections in the metropolis. The administration has set up 288 polling statlions for the polling process in the city.

Meanwhile, elections were underway in 10 wards each in Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sargodha and Abbottabad and seven wards of Multan and in other cities.

In Quetta, 35 candidates are contesting for five wards. 31 polling stations have been sut up for 28,945 voters. In total, 15,346 male and 13,599 female voters will exercise their democratic right in the city today.

Wrong symbol printed

Voting could not start in a ward in Abbottabad Cantonment Board after an independent candidate's symbol was wrongly printed on the ballot papers.

The candidate was allotted a round table as an election symbol but when the ballot papers were opened in the ward an apple was printed against his name.

Clash in Multan

Supporters of two rival political parties came to blows in Ward No 4 of the Multan Cantonment Board. Additional police force was called in to control the situation.

Setback to PTI

The ruling PTI which has fielded the most candidates suffered a setback before the polling started after its candidate from Ward No 2 of Mangla Cantonment Board withdrew his candidature.

Ihtesham Wazarat announced his withdrawal from the elections and extended his support to independent candidate Muhammad Shakeel.

Fake polling agents arrested

Police in Karachi have arrested two fake polling agents from Ward No 4 of Clifton Cantonment Board.

The action was taken on the request of RO Clifton Cantonment Board Saleem Hassan Wattoo who said that the two men were present inside a female polling booth and they did not have any authentic documents.

Both were said to belong to two different parties.

Slow voting

Only two votes have so far been cast in the polling station no 10 of Ward No 4 in Lahore Walton Cantonment Board.

Reporters Hasnain Aulakh, Hassan Abbas