ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: Many residents were unable to vote on Wednesday despite intending to do so, either because their votes were registered outside the city or because they could not find their names at various polling stations.

Shazia Bibi moved to the capital from central Punjab in 2004, and has been living in the city since. She has attempted to move her vote to Islamabad a number of times, but has been unsuccessful.

“Almost seven years ago, in 2011, I was told by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) that my children’s b-form could not be issued unless I changed my CNIC status and declared myself married.

“A new CNIC was issued, and my Islamabad address was mentioned on it. I was hoping that my vote would be transferred as well, but it was not,” she told Dawn.

Last year during the census, she told an official her vote should be transferred to Islamabad where she has been residing.

“I tried to check a few days ago by sending an SMS to 8300 and learned that my vote was still in central Punjab. I cannot travel hundreds of kilometres to cast my vote,” she said.

Rawalpindi resident Noshaba Bibi was unable to transfer her vote from one part of Rawalpindi to another, despite her efforts to do so.

But there were also cases of people who could not vote even though they were registered in the right city.

When Sana Azhar reached Islamabad Model College for Girls I-10/4, she was told her vote was not available there. She showed officials a message from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and a slip stating a serial number and the name of the school, but was told her name was not on the list available with the presiding officer.

“I spent half an hour moving from one table to another and contacting officials, but no one was ready to guide me. I had no choice but to go home without voting,” she said.

In Rawalpindi’s Gawalmandi constituency, some women who had come to cast their votes early in the morning returned home after shuttling between two polling stations in Gawalmandi.

“I came to vote early in the morning but I am going back because the polling staff said my vote was not at that polling station when the ECP message said it was,” a voter, Samina Niaz said.

Separately, the Awami Workers Party alleged on social media that a number of non-Muslim voters in NA-54 had complained that polling station officers were not allowing them to vote because they did not have the voter lists for religious minorities.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2018