PESHAWAR, Dec 26: Despite government assurance to deploy the army to assist police and other security personnel at polling stations, the government school teachers tasked to perform duty as election staff fear for their security.
Interviews with the teachers who have been assigned duties at various polling stations in Peshawar show that majority of them are reluctant to perform duty for security concerns.
“If someone is out to attack or blow himself up at the polling station, no security man could stop him,” a primary teacher said, adding that the presence of law-enforcement agencies could not ensure security to the polling staff.
Provincial Election Commissioner Akhtar Hussain Sabir told Dawn that 8,156 polling stations would be set up in the NWFP and Fata and almost the same number of presiding officers would be performing duties at these polling stations. Each polling station would have 13 election staff on the election day, he added.
The teachers who performed duty in the previous elections said that election staff was not properly trained. They complained that they had not been provided food and transport facilities. “We depended often on the locals and candidates for such facilities. The daily allowance provided to the polling staff was paid after a long time,” they said.
However, Mr Sabir said that each polling staffer was paid Rs175 per day (Rs450 for three days) and an extra Rs200 was also paid to them as food as diet allowance.
A primary schoolteacher was of the view that although medical leave was not allowed and therefore they would attend the assigned polling staton, yet the election staff would be performing the duty half-heartedly.
The provincial election commissioner said that if anyone was not able to perform duty owing to health problem, a replacement would be provided from the reserved staff.
