LAHORE: The main contest in the 20 cantonments in Punjab is between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and opposition PML-N in the Cantonment boards elections on Sunday (today), with the latter claiming the people will demonstrate ‘no-confidence’ through their vote against the government.

With deployment of Rangers and police outside all polling stations, over 1,300 candidates are in the run for 119 wards/general seats in these cantonments, where about one million voters will exercise their right to franchise.

In Lahore, 257 candidates are contesting for 20 wards in the two cantonments. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared 40 and 237 polling stations as “extremely sensitive” in these cantonments, respectively.

Both the PTI and the PML-N have fielded candidates for all (20) seats, while banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) is running for 19 of the slots.

Meanwhile, the PPP and Jamaat-i-Islami have fielded 10 each candidates in the two cantonments, while JUI-F pitched four.

The polling will begin at 8am and end at 5pm. The ECP has notified that the media persons are allowed to enter the polling stations with cameras for making footage of the voting process.

The ECP on Saturday imposed a fine of Rs30,000 on Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan for violating the election’s code of conduct. It had issued a notice to Mr Sarwar on reports of the Wah Cantonment Board for attending a public meeting of a ruling party candidate there.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, PML-N leader Saad Rafique said: “On Sunday (today) the voters of the cantonments will show their no-confidence against the PTI government for making their lives miserable.”

He said the government candidates tried to buy computerised national identity cards (CNICs) of the voters.

“Like in the election of Azad Kashmir, jobs were doled out in these polls. Police were misused as opposition’s candidates and supporters were picked up,” he said and warned the government officials against “becoming a party” in the polls as the PML-N voters were guarding their votes.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2021