Polling for 12 National Assembly and 23 Punjab Assembly seats was held on Monday without traditional hustle and bustle amid stringent security measures adopted by law-enforcing agencies.
Complaints of duplication or missing of voters' names from the lists issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan and printing mistakes such as misprinting of names or identity card numbers were also reported.
Turnout remained 'moderate' in the city and according to a rough estimate, around 30-35 per cent voters used their right of franchise in the polls. However, the pace of polling in the first part of the day was slow, but the momentum picked up as the day progressed. Many voters kept themselves away from the polling stations in the morning due to fear of any untoward incident, but after hearing no such news many voters turned up at polling stations to cast their votes.
The polling, which started at 8am continued till 5pm without any break. However, the voters, who entered the polling stations at 5pm, were allowed to cast their votes.
Isolated incidents of delayed start of polling were also reported, mainly due to absence of polling agents. Nevertheless, poor turnout of voters in the morning rather till 12:00 noon was witnessed. A Business Recorder team visited a ladies polling station in Johar Town area at around 12:32pm where the presiding officer on a query said that only 17 voters had cast their votes. More or less the same situation was witnessed in ladies polling station situated in Township (NA-127) where around 11:29 am, only 38 ladies cast votes, out of total 400 registered voters while at another booth only 10 female voters turned up by that time, out of the same number of voters.
Voters started coming out of their homes afterwards and the process picked up gradually. However, at some polling stations such as a slum situated in Shah Jamal area, the polling staff said that a heavy rush of voters was witnessed in the morning and the trend continued till 1:30pm, however, subsequently the number of voters gradually declined.
A large number of people could not cast their votes because of confusion in the voter lists and designated polling stations. It was noticed that five-six polling stations were set up for the voters of same locality and as such they were found running from pillar to post to find out their names. A presiding officer Ihsan of the polling station No 194 in NA-125 said that he was informed by a senior officer Sunday night about the change of his polling station from Ismara Girls School, Bulleh Shah Road-Defence Ghazi Road to a primary school in Yasin Town area. Because of this confusion, he could not start polling even till 9.00.am and heavy contingent of police and Pakistan Rangers had to rush to the polling station to tackle the situation.
There was no complaint about the bogus vote except Gulberg High School in Lahore Cantt, area where four people were caught red-handed in a bid to cast bogus vote in NA-125. They were taken into custody by the local police.
In one of the polling stations in NA-120, 158 votes were polled out of 476 total till 2:27 pm while at the second polling both, 113 voters used their right of franchise, out of 600 total registered votes. In the same constituency, at another male polling booth, out of total 1554, only 550 were cast till 2:45 pm. Similarly at ladies polling station the turn out was even lesser and out of total 1400 votes only 250 were cast till 3:00 pm. At another polling station at the same venue, out of 1200, only 135 female voters used their right of franchise at the same time.
UC-72 (Lahore) Nazim, Sher Bahadur Khan belonging to PML (N) while talking to Business Recorder complained discrepancies in the voters list. He said there were duplication of names while many people who had polled their votes in the last general elections were found missing in the new lists. A worker of the PPP Khalid also complained the same problems in the voters list.
In NA-122, the Business Recorder team visited the polling stations at around 3:00 pm at H.Q. Schools System Shah Jamal, where out of total 881 registered ladies voters only 150 used their right of franchise. While at the second polling station, out of 1030 registered voters only 325 polled their votes at the same time.
Security issues were striking the mind of people and at the same polling station, security officials of that particular school did not even allow newsmen to carry their mobiles into the polling station. Almost at all the polling stations, voters were allowed to get into the premises of the polling station after thorough physical search.
Candidates also visited polling stations in their respective constituencies. Mian Aslam Iqbal, former Punjab Minister and a candidate of the PML-Q, visited a polling station in Shah Jamal Area. This polling station was set up in a WASA office where total number of male registered voters was 1,090 and 300 votes were polled till 3:30pm while on ladies side, out of total registered voters of 1,380, only 324 were cast. A team of foreign observers also came across Business Recorder reporting team at this polling station, but they declined to comment on the situation.
In NA 126, a team of foreign observers also visited a polling station in FC College where out of total registered voters of 1600 only 235 were cast. People at this polling station, especially the female voters and the elders, complained that parking was made far from the polling booths and they had to cover a long distance by foot to cast their votes. Confusion in the voters list was also reported at the same polling station and some voters complained that they could not find their name in the voters list despite hectic efforts. Amjad Ali, a PPP worker sitting out side the polling station, said that turn out was higher than previous time in this constituency.
In NA-125, at a polling station named Khanum Girls School Hussnianabad Lahore Cantt, total 1249 registered male votes, 549 were polled till 4:10 pm while at female polling station the presiding officer declined to provide any detail to media people. At a polling state in Government Gulberg High School Lahore Cantt, in the same constituency, out of total 2,461 male registered votes, 1091 were cast till 4:30 pm. In posh localities voters seemed least bothered about the election process and did not cast their votes. When the Business Recorder team asked a young man coming out of his home about location of polling station, he expressed his oblivion and when asked did he cast his vote, he replied, "what's the use of it?"
Meanwhile, in Punjab as many as 3,348 candidates belonging to different national political parties were in the run for 147 national and 293 provincial assembly seats in the general elections-2008. The Election authorities had abandoned election in one National Assembly seat (NA-119 Lahore-II) and five provincial assembly seats (PP-70, Faisalabad, PP-90 Gujranwala, PP-141 Lahore, PP-154 and PP-171, Nankana Sahib) following deaths of candidates in these constituencies.
As many as 1036 candidates, including 50 women, were in election field for 147 National Assembly seats and over 2300, including 72 women for 292 seats of the Punjab Assembly. There were over 45 million registered voters including 20.2 million female voters in the Punjab. A total of 38,021 polling stations were set up across the province, a spokesman of Election Commission said.
District Returning Officers assisted by Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers drawn from the judiciary personally monitored the process of casting votes at polling stations. Registered voters exercised their right of franchise in the election to elect candidates of their choice.
Control rooms were also established at all district headquarters to monitor the overall law and order situation and peaceful conduct of polls. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, and Pakistan People's Party established their independent election monitoring offices in Lahore to collect latest election results of their candidates. The local and foreign journalists from print and electronic media were facilitated for sending dispatches to their respective organisations on the spot.
Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Quaid Nawaz Sharif cast his vote at Islamia College railway road. Till the filing of this report, initial polling results has shown that the PML-N was leading in Lahore followed by the PPP, and the PML-Q seems to be lagging far behind in the race for national and provincial Assemblies. For the National Assembly, in NA 118 Malik Riaz of PML-N was leading against Asif Akhtar Hashmi of PPP and Mian Azhar of PML-Q, and in NA 120 Bilal Yasin of PML-N was in the lead against Jahangir Badar of PPP and Khawaja Tahir Zia of PML-Q. In NA 121, Mian Mahroob of PML-N has taken a lead against Aurangzeb Barki of PPP and NA 130 Samina Gurkhi of PPP is ahead in the vote count.
A tight contest was seen in NA 122 where Mian Umar Misbah of PPP and Sardar Ayaz Saddiq of PML-N were neck-to-neck.
Former Federal Minister Humayun Akhtar, contesting from two constituencies of Lahore, was reported to be losing against Khawaja Saad Rafique of PML-N at NA 125 and Shiekh Rohail Asghar of PML-N at NA 124. Moonis Elahi, son of former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, contesting for a provincial assembly seat from PP-152 was in a comfortable position against Ashraf Ijaz Gill of PPP and Dr Saeed Elahi of PML-N. No major untoward incident was reported from any part of the city till the filing of this report.
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