LAHORE / KARACHI: Polling during the first phase of the local government elections in 12 districts of Punjab was relatively peaceful but marked with irregularities and illegalities, suggesting weak grip of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the electoral process, said the Fair and Free Election Network (Fafen) on Sunday.

It said that despite some irregularities the polling in eight districts of Sindh was conducted in a better way as compared to the past elections in the province.

Fafen said it was releasing reports on the polling in the two provinces, held on Saturday, with the sole purpose of influencing improvements in the second and third phases of the polls, to be held on Nov 19 and Dec 5.

Also read: PML-N emerges leader in Punjab, PPP ahead in Sindh

One of the irregularities seen in Punjab was the bar on Fafen observing the voting and counting process at polling stations despite the issuance of accreditation cards by the ECP, it said.

According to the report for Punjab, preliminary findings suggested that 177 (71 per cent) of the 249 polling stations in 12 districts from where the information could be acquired, various violations of electoral procedures took place.

These included breach of secrecy of voting, canvassing inside polling stations, presence of security personnel inside polling stations and incidents of interference by security and election staff in the voting process.

There was little action taken by the ECP to enforce its code of conduct on political parties and candidates which were promulgated well ahead of elections, the report said.

Delayed opening of polling stations was reported from 10 (4pc) stations in four districts — Bahawalnagar, Lahore, Lodhran and Kasur.

According to the report, party or the candidates’ campaign material was present inside 10 (4pc) of the polling stations. Fafen observers also reported violation of secrecy of voting at 10.8pc of the polling stations.

They reported a number of incidents where candidates, politicians, political workers, influential persons or security personnel were found persuading voters to vote in favour of a specific candidate or party.

In its report for Sindh, Fafen said that in some constituencies polling could not begin on time due to late arrival of election staff.

Some irregularities were observed during polling but there was no report in which a polling station was occupied by a group as was reported in previous elections, the report said.

However, there were some reports of halting of polling process in Larkana, Sukkur, Ghotki and Jacobabad and delaying in counting of votes.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2015

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