RAWALPINDI: Corner meetings, hoardings, banners and door-to-door visits are the traditional ways for convincing the citizens before elections and all these activities have started in the garrison city before the local government elections scheduled to be held on December 5.

The candidates have started visiting their respective areas to meet the residents. Besides, election offices have also been opened in every mohallah and residential colony.

In a few union councils, two groups of political parties were seen trying to convince the residents to vote for them or two candidates from the same family contesting on different symbols.

Abdullah Butt of Dhoke Ratta got the ticket of the PML-N while his younger brother Haji Saeed Akhter alias Bilo Butt decided to contest as an independent candidate with the symbol of bucket.

However, a senior leader of the PML-N told Dawn that both the brothers belonged to the ruling party and to avoid the division of votes, the younger brother had been persuaded to withdraw his nominations in favour of his elder brother.

PML-N local leaders led by Sardar Naseem, Malik Shakil Awan and Hanif Abbasi have become active to convince different groups within the party to also withdraw in favour of the party ticket holders.

On Monday, they managed to settle such issues in UC-3 and UC-42 and got assurances from the PML-N workers’ group to withdraw their nominations in favour of the party ticket holders - Bahadur Khan in UC-3 and Sajjad Khan in UC-42.

Talking to Dawn, former MNA Malik Shakil Awan said the PML-N had formed a committee to settle the differences among the party workers.

On the other hand, the PPP Rawalpindi chapter has also formed a committee to help its workers run their election campaigns. But its campaign is limited to a few union councils only.

Mostly, the PPP workers are contesting the elections as independent candidates.

Meanwhile, the candidates were of the view that instead of party affiliations the voters were interested in getting promises from the candidates for resolving their problems at the local level.

“These elections are different from the general elections and the party affiliation is not necessary to win the polls. However, the reputation of a candidate is important,” said Gul Zareen, a candidate.

He said he belonged to the PTI but was contesting the election as an independent candidate due to internal party politics. He said his supporters were more visible in corner meetings compared to the party ticket holder.

Nasir Mir, a former PPP naib nazim, said he was also contesting the election as an independent candidate as his affiliation with the party did not increase his votes. He said people mostly voted for those who can help them solve their civic issues.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2015

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