The worst difficulty faced by voters in Karachi on Thursday for the local bodies first phase election was the absence of public transport from the roads except for few vehicles including buses, reports UPP correspondent.
Because of the transport difficulty many voters could not reach the polling stations, especially women. It may be mentioned here that Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan had urged all public transport operators to operate their buses and coaches but this did not happen on Thursday.
As a result several hundred thousand voters could not exercise their vote due to conveyance difficulties, especially women voters.
Meanwhile, many candidates in the LB elections ran their own hired transport to transport their supporters to the polling stations and back while in many cases Suzuki pickups operated as vehicles for hire to transport the voters to the polling stations and back.
It was also observed that taxis and rickshaws operating on Thursday were charging a minimum of Rs 50 and Rs 100 for even short journeys because buses and wagons were not there. Many voters, who were short of money, could not afford the fare for rickshaws and taxis while in some cases the voters hired a rickshaw collectively and five rode on a rickshaw distributing the fare among the five passengers.
So was the case with taxis. Voters interviewed by UPP correspondent complained of the lack of transport facilities and urged that the arrangements on August 25, when the second phase of polling takes place should be made good by the authorities. One reason for low turnout at many polling stations was the difficulty in getting proper transport by the voters.
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