May 1, 2002	Wednesday	Safar 17, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, April 30: The Election Commission announced that “large numbers” of people had turned out to cast votes in favour of Gen Pervez Musharraf in the presidential referendum on Tuesday.

The results announced by the Election Commission till filing of this report, were well over 90 per cent in favour.

The Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (retd) Irshad Hasan Khan, who visited Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar in the day, announced the first result here at 11:30pm. He said that wherever he and other Election Commission members had gone they had seen large numbers of voters at the polling stations.

The CEC said it was a matter of great satisfaction for him that the voting had taken place in an orderly and peaceful manner and no report of any untoward incident had been received from any part of the country.

The first result came from Dera Bugti, Balochistan, where 9,578 votes were polled: 9,280 in affirmative and 203 in negative.

However, according to reports and eyewitnesses, the turnout was very low in almost all parts of the country. Contrary to the expectations no armymen were seen patrolling the streets.

In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, a small number of voters went to polling stations despite the best efforts of the district governments.

Even in the cantonment area of Rawalpindi where the majority of population is composed of serving and retired armed forces personnel, the polling stations presented a deserted look.

Information Minister Nisar Memon claimed that the turnout was beyond government’s expectations as a “silent majority” had come out to cast votes.

The minister said the government was expecting more votes than those polled in the last general elections, which, according to him, were 35 per cent. The turnout in the referendum was at least double of the votes polled in the last general election, he added. However, the results being announced by the Election Commission gave a different picture.

There were reports of rigging as the presiding officers were seen stamping the ballot papers and stuffing the ballot boxes. It was an electoral exercise where voters lists were not used.

Everybody who claimed to have attained the age of 18 was welcome to cast his vote whether he had his identity card or not. The government had waived the restriction of producing the identity card. The EC, however, had directed the heads of the educational institutions to issue certificate to the students who had attained the voter age. But this conditions was not generally observed.

The business community of Rawalpindi and Islamabad generally kept away from the referendum as majority of them remained