PESHAWAR: Although Peshawarities came out from their houses in a large number to cast their votes in local bodies’ elections on Sunday, yet slow polling at majority of the polling stations dampened the enthusiasm of voters as well candidates.

More than 5,000 candidates were in the run for seven tehsil councils, 357 village and neighbourhood councils, tehsil chairman and mayor seats in the provincial capital. The authorities had set up more than 1,200 polling stations and deployed over 11,000 security personnel for polls security.

The major contest was for the seat of Peshawar mayor for which all the major political parties including PTI, ANP, JUI-F, PPP and JI had fielded their candidates.

Talking to journalists, ANP candidate for Peshawar mayor seat Haji Sher Rahman said that a large number of voters turned up at the polling stations. However, he said, the polling process was very slow as Election Commission of Pakistan had deputed inexperience staff at the polling stations.

Hakim Khan, a resident of Akhoonabad area, falling in neighbourhood council-56, told Dawn that the process of polling was very slow. Standing in a long queue at Akhoonabad No-4 polling station, he said that he was standing in the queue for the last two hours while it would take another hour to cast vote.

Hasan Khan, a resident of Gharibabad area falling in neighbourhood council-62, demanded of the government to increase the number of polling stations in future as the population increased while the number of polling stations was the same.

He alleged that ECP deputed inexperienced staff at their polling station that was taking a lot of time to complete the process required for casting a vote.

At polling station No.467 in Sufaid Dheri, around 600 votes were polled of 1,800 at 2pm that was 30 per cent of the registered votes. On the other hand, voters were waiting for their turn in long queue outside the polling station.

One of the features of that polling station was presence of voters belonging to the Christian community as they have a sizeable population in this neighbourhood.

Similarly, at another polling station in Academy Town, around 660 votes were polled of the 1,500 at around 2:40pm.

Some of the polling booths were established on the second floor of the government schools, causing inconvenience to senior citizens as well as persons with disabilities in casting their votes.

In Garhi Hayat Khan area of Hazarkhwani-II neighbourhood council, the voters were seen in cramped conditions as the polling station was established in a small government primary school.

In several areas of the provincial capital, scuffles and altercations were witnessed among the supporters of different political parties when they raised objections over each other’s voters. Due to these scuffles and altercations, the polling process was also stopped for some time at several polling stations.

The opposition parties alleged that the polling process was intentionally kept slow in those areas, which were considered stronghold of opposition parties.

An expert on local bodies’ elections said that one of the major reasons of slow polling was that of multiple voting, as each of the voter had to cast six votes including for general councillor, youth, peasant, women, minority and tehsil chairman.

Similarly, the polling staff also had to write down the number of Computerised National Identity Card of the voter on the counter file of the ballet paper and also to put the thumb impression of the voter on all six ballot papers that delayed the process.

In the provincial capital, in several areas, polling continued after the closing hours because of presence of large number of voters on the premises of the respective polling station.

In neighbourhood council of Gulbahar area of Peshawar, ECP postponed polling after one of the candidates allegedly broke the ballot box and thrown away the ballot papers.

In Mardan, polling was postponed in two village councils of Mardan tehsil owing to wrong publication of candidates’ symbols on the ballot papers.

The relevant officials said that elections on the two farmers’ seats in village council Gujar Garhi-2 and Behram Khan Kallay village council had been postponed due to the incorrect publication of symbols on the ballet papers.

DRO Habibullah Arif said he postponed the elections on the two seats when the candidates concerned complained to him that their symbols were wrongly published.

Meanwhile, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Umar Hameed Khan on Sunday visited different polling stations in the district to review arrangements for the local body elections.

Talking to mediapersons, he expressed his satisfaction over the arrangements. Answering a query, he said inquiries would be held over genuine complaints of candidates.

Asked about use of electronic voting machines in next elections, he said they were holding pilot projects so as to make possible the use of EVMs in the coming polls.

The elections in the five tehsils of Mardan were held peacefully and no untoward incident had been reported in the 3,215 polling stations of the district.

In Swabi, the ECP secretary visited polling stations in Anbar region and appreciated facilities for the voters. In the district, the arrival of voters at polling stations was slow till 11am due to severe cold.

Also in the day, one person suffered injuries in Azad Kashmir village inside a polling station when his rivals opened fire on him. Clashes were also reported from Tordher and other areas, but police succeeded to control the situation.

In Lakki Marwat district, polling for the seats of tehsil chairman and general, women, peasants, youth and minorities councillors ended peacefully.

In Multan Manjiwala village, two groups exchanged fire over a poll-related issue, but no one was injured. Two villagers were reportedly wounded when two groups traded fire in Dadiwala locality of Kurrum Par area.

In Paharkhel Thall village, a single female voter polled her vote at a female polling station till midday. No female voters turned up for casting vote at another female and a combined polling station in the locality though the polling staff remained present till the closing hours.

In Haripur, polling for the LG elections 2021 was completed peacefully amid strict security.

In Dera Ismail Khan, the polling process for LG elections ended peacefully on Sunday though enthusiasm of voters had somewhat waned after the tragic assassination of ANP candidate for city mayor slot the previous day.

Senator Maulana Ataur Rehman, JUI-F provincial chief, polled his vote in his home constituency of Abdulkhel.

In Kohat, FC had to be called by additional deputy commissioner Bashir Ahmed after receiving reports of the entry of people in Bilitang polling stations. A similar situation was also witnessed in some other Kohat polling stations.

(Our correspondents from Mardan, Swabi, Lakki Marwat, Kohat, Haripur and Dera Ismail Khan also contributed to this report)

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2021