FAISALABAD, Aug 25: Massive irregularities, mismanagement due to shortage of material and late arrival of the staff, besides certain flaws in the polling scheme made a mess in most of the 289 union councils in Faisalabad on Thursday.

A round of the urban areas of Jinnah Town, Lyallpur Town, Madina Town and Iqbal Town and some parts of the rural areas of Chak Jhumra tehsil revealed that the returning officers failed to start the polling at 8am — the scheduled time — owing to various reasons. The polling started in most of the union councils at 10am and reports pouring in from some stations said the process commenced after 11:30am.

It was also observed that there was shortage of unerasable ink, seals for ballot boxes and stamps in 40 per cent of the union councils, which delayed the process.

Worse still, the polling staff of different stations were changed a few minutes before the start of the voting by the returning officers, who took the plea that they had been wrongly appointed. The candidates for nazim and naib nazim slots protested against mismanagement at the polling stations and said even the district returning officer was not available in his chamber from 9:00am to 2:30pm to do the needful.

They alleged that the polling staff were changed at the behest of some candidates backed by the ruling PML.

Minority candidates in 16 union councils claimed that the returning officers had failed to provide the lists of voters in their respective areas till 12 noon due to which polling was inordinately delayed. Complaints of missing symbols also were aired in several other union councils.

A group of woman candidates for councillor seats claimed that their symbols were changed by the returning officers without any notice, which spoiled their efforts during canvassing.

CEC: The chief election commissioner, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar (retired), expressed satisfaction over arrangements the election commission and the district administration had made for the elections.

Speaking to journalists, he described the elections as free and fair. He said the returning officers had allotted election symbols to the candidates systematically.

To avoid untoward incidents like those occurring in the first phase of the election, he said the candidates were asked to furnish surety bonds to implement election code of conduct.