LAHORE: Unlike general elections, most of the voters in Saturday’s local government polls preferred the candidates they believed could resolve their area issues, regardless of their political affiliations.

The voters are of the view the local polls are not an occasion to fully exhibit their party affiliations, saying they are not political activists bound to work in the party’s interest. For most of them resolution of the civic issues mattered most.

“All the residents of our street unanimously decided to vote for the candidate who even before the polling day got the streetlights repaired. The patchwork on the road leading to our street has also been done. Now it does not matter who supported whom as we have common interest,” Muhammad Kamran of Misri Shah told Dawn after casting vote along with his family members at the Government Boys High School Jehangirabad. By 3pm some 460 out of total 1,417 votes had been cast at this polling station.

“As the MNAs and MPAs have a large constituency they are not available to their voters to address their civic issues. Now we can at least have a couple of elected representatives to whom we turn for getting our area’s problems solved,” said Mr Kamran who did not prefer voting for the candidate representing the party he liked.

Muhammad Ashraf, an 80 year-old Bhutto lover, said he had always been voting for the PPP candidates in the past elections. “This time I voted for a candidate of another party only because he promised supply of clean water to our street. My family and my neighbours deserve clean water,” Ashraf of Shadbagh said.

Mumtaz Begum, an elderly woman on wheelchair, said she had come to vote for the ruling party candidates with a hope that they would better serve as resources were at their disposal.

“Before coming to the polling station, my son convinced me to vote for the panel of the ruling party candidates as they had secured funds for repairing roads in our area and the work had already begun. My son says we should show our political affiliation while voting in the general elections but not in the local ones,” she said.

A good number of voters in other parts of the city Dawn spoke to backed local government system, saying the elections should be held every four years.

“There had been a lot of excitement in our area since the local polls were announced. But at the same time we apprehended delay in elections,” said Nasir Ali of Faisal Town.

“I voted for an independent candidate as even in his individual capacity he helped the people in resolving their civic issues,” he said after casting his vote in UC-210.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2015

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