Heavy rain, windstorm disrupt polls in Sialkot

The heavy rain on Thursday badly disrupted local bodies' elections in Sialkot district as heavy rains followed by windstorm lashed out entire Sialkot district.
Heavy rains on Thursday started at 7:45 am which continued the whole day intermittently, inundating all low lying urban and rural areas. The dozens of male and female polling stations, remained under two to three feet high rainy water in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils' various urban and rural areas. It remained dark cloudy with the loud thunder of clouds the whole day.
The hundreds of polling agents' stalls established by different candidates near polling stations were also uprooted by the heavy windstorm. The heavy rain and inundated streets, roads and even polling stations forced male and female voters to stay at homes, except a small number of male voters seen at some urban and rural polling stations.
The polling could not be started at scheduled time of 08:00 am. At most of the urban polling stations in Sialkot City, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur, the polling started at 09:00 am and at 09:30 am in rural areas. The official voters' lists, ballot papers and other polling materials were not available at most of the urban and rural areas' polling stations.
The visiting voters complained about non availability of voters lists, ballot papers and other related polling material in Daska city's various polling stations including main male and female polling stations at Govt Boys High School Daska.
The total turn out of male voters remained from three to five per cent till 12:00 pm while, the female voters total turn out also remained between two to four per cent in urban areas' polling stations. According to the survey, total turn out of the voters remained less than three per cent in the rural areas' polling stations of Sialkot district.
No traditional hustle and bustle of the candidates, their supporters and voters was witnessed around the polling stations due to heavy rain and dark cloudy weather with loud thunders. The bad weather also created panic among all candidates who were found afraid of their possible defeat due to very small number of voters at polling stations during rain.
However, after 12:30 pm, the male voters' rush increased at the polling stations, which also raised the turn out from 20 to 25 per cent, while female voters were also seen heading towards polling stations after 01:00 pm.