LARKANA: Security personnel stand guard at a polling station during by-election in the PS-11 constituency.—PPI
LARKANA: Security personnel stand guard at a polling station during by-election in the PS-11 constituency.—PPI

LARKANA: Grand Dem­o­cratic Alliance’s (GDA) candidate Moazzam Ali Abb­asi won the by-election held for the Sindh Assembly’s constituency PS-11 (Larkana-II) on Thursday, according to unofficial results.

While Mr Abbasi bagged 31,557 votes, his rival Jamil Soomro of the Pakistan Peoples Party could get 26,021 votes, according to the unofficial results received from all the 138 polling stations that were set up for the by-election.

Polling was held in a peaceful environment and no untoward incident was reported anywhere in the constituency.

Special security measures were put in place, including deployment of Rangers and the army in the constituency, in addition to the police.

Polling began at 8am and continued till 5pm without break.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced the re-election after the Supreme Court unseated Mr Abbasi, who had won the seat in the 2018 general election.

The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 152,614 — 83,016 men and 69,598 women.

Mr Soomro, who is political secretary of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, cast his vote in a polling station established at the public health engineering office while Mr Abbasi cast his at a polling station in a government-run primary school.

Both Mr Soomro and Mr Abbasi talked to reporters after casting their votes and also visited some other polling stations in the constituency.

The voting process was quite fast in the morning, but later its pace slowed down.

GDA supporters raised objections over the visits of elected representatives of PPP, including Mr Bhutto-Zardari, Khursheed Ahmed Junejo, Nadir Magsi, to various polling stations.

PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) pointed to delay in the start of polling at some polling stations for women due to late arrival of women police personnel.

In-charge of PPP’s central election cell Taj Haider in a letter to the CEC drew his attention towards complaints by Mr Bhutto-Zardari, who had accused Rangers of interfering in the political process, checking voter slips and harassing polling agents and candidates.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2019

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....