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| October 7, 2005 | Friday | Ramazan 2, 1426 |
LB polls end but not the bitterness
ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: Many union councillors were barred from casting their votes in Thursday’s election of district and town nazims because they could not produce the mandatory computerised national identity card (CNIC).
Some of them told Dawn that the special cards issued by the Election Commission to union councillors were not accepted by the polling stations’ staff.
“We thought the special cards were sufficient identity for us. That is why we did not take our CNICs with us,” the dejected councillors said.
Verbal clashes were reported on the issue between the councillors who insisted on polling their vote without producing the CNIC and the presiding officers and their teams who equally insisted on seeing their CNIC.
“The cards issued by the Election Commission to the union councillors proved useless. They have no worth because despite having this card we were barred from casting votes,” a labour councillor from Union Council-42, Raja Iftikhar Ahmed, said.
On the other hand a presiding officer in Government Elite High School said there were clear instructions from the EC that a voter must produce his CNIC to be allowed to cast his vote.
Camps set up by the candidates outside the polling stations competed with each other in extending “courtesy and comfort” to the voters - except that Ramazan restrictions prevented them from feasting the voters.
Supporters thronging the camps and the flood of huge banners, posters and models of election symbols of competing candidates gave a festive look to the whole atmosphere which also smelled of dirty money.
Despite the elections being party-less, every major political party, foremost the ruling PML, was seen openly campaigning for its candidate — sometimes using questionable tactics.
A candidate for the slot of Rawal Town Nazim, Sardar Naseem, accused the ruling party-backed candidate Sheikh Rashid Shafique and a candidate of Awam Dost Panel of the PPP, Khurram Rasool, of enticing voters with money.
He said his opponents were rich and were offering Rs400,000 for each vote.
All station house officers (SHOs) of the Rawalpindi Police had allegedly been directed to put pressure on voters in an effort to increase the vote bank of government-backed candidates.
Mr Naseem said government resources and machinery was used with impunity in favour of the government backed candidates.
PPP’s National Assembly member Ms Nahid Khan accused the ruling party of using official vehicles in the elections and alleged that police escorted them.
“We have written to the Election Commission inviting its attention towards judicial officers who allegedly openly insisted on voters to show them their ballot paper to see which candidate they had voted for before putting it in the ballot boxes.
“We requested the returning officers to strictly adhere to the condition of CNIC because we have information that some fake votes would be polled from the opposition side,” a candidate of Rawal Town Nazim, Sheikh Rashid Shafique said.
He claimed that candidates of opposition parties have bought about 100 votes. However, he expressed satisfaction over polling arrangements.
When contacted, a candidate of Awam Dost panel of the PPP, Khurram Rasool, accused his opponent Sheikh Rashid Shafique of checking votes before polling by the voters. “It is a severe violation of code of conduct issued by the election commission,” he said.
A supporter of the former Nazim, Tariq Aziz, said that “speculation that the parliamentary system was going to be wound up made the political parties to exert maximum influence in the local government elections to remain in power”.
Millions of rupees were spent by the candidates in their electioneering, especially on buying the voters, he alleged.
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