ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: Political and administrative circles both see a tough Election 2008 fight in the federal capital on Monday but also a lower turnout of voters than in the past.
It is largely a triangular fight between the PPP and the PML-N and the PML-Q across the country but in Islamabad the real battle is predicted to be between the PPP and PML-N who are otherwise allied in opposition to PML-Q.
In Election 2002, 51 per cent of the 380,000 registered voters had cast their votes, returning Mian Aslam of MMA and Nayyar Hussain Bukhari of PPP from Islamabad’s NA-48 and NA-49.
This time however the government is expecting “very low” turnout of voters because of security concerns, a local administration official said reflecting the general perception.
“I think the turnout on February 18 would be five to ten per cent lower than recorded in the 2002 polls,” he said.
The spate of suicide bombings and attacks on politicians and security personnel had created an atmosphere of fear not just for the population but for the polling staff also, the official said.
Teachers and other government employees would be performing their election duties under great stress. “Some women polling officers expressed their reluctance to perform their assigned duties,” he said.
Islamabad’s Deputy Commissioner Amir Ahmed Ali tried to calm nerves by assuring “foolproof security arrangements” to avert attempts at violence to disturb the election process.
Troops have been called in to assist local police and other civil security forces for the maintenance of peace in the capital during the elections, the official said.
A control room set up in the Islamabad Model College for Boys, F-8/4, will monitor the security arrangements on the polling and post-polling day.
Some 370 polling stations have been set up in Islamabad’s two constituencies.
In NA-48 a close contest is expected between PPP’s Dr Israr Shah and PML-N’s Anjum Aqeel Khan. PML-Q’s Rizwan Sadiq is also in the run.
Political analysts say the boycott of the elections by All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) may benefit PML-N candidate Anjum Aqeel in NA-48 as former MNA Mian Muhammad Aslam and a leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, a component of APDM, had been lending support to the PML-N secretly.
Anjum Aqeel is a relative of th Peers of Golra Sharif and is said to enjoy support in the rural area of the constituency.
The PPP candidate in NA-48, Dr Israr Shah, is likely to get sympathy vote on account of his own sacrifice when he lost his legs in a suicide attack on PPP camp set up outside district court to receive former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on July 27, 2007 and the assassination of his party leader Benazir Bhutto five months later.
But the very disability which earned him sympathy made it impossible for him to reach to all his constituents in the election campaign.
The PML-Q candidate in the constituency Rizwan Sadiq is stated to be a rich man but he lacks political background and vision and could not mobilise his team to bring out voters on election-day for his favour.
In NA-49, a PPP local leader and former MNA Nayyar Bukhari and PML-N candidate Tariq Fazal Chaudhry are stated to be in close contest after the PML-Q candidate Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, son of former deputy speaker NA Nawaz Khokhar, lost his popularity when his diehard supporters opened fire on a public meeting of PML-N on same day that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27. Five people were killed in the firing incident.
Sources said PPP candidate Nayyar Bukhari has an edge in the polls because he had already won last general election from the same seat due to his big Baradri (family) in his constituency.
