ISLAMABAD, Aug 12: Most of the rigging on election day takes place at women polling stations and during the closing hours, reveal interviews with activists and workers of political parties who have been performing duties as polling agents in the general and local elections in the past.

Talking to Dawn, the polling agents pointed out several techniques being adopted by the candidates and government officials performing election duties for rigging on the polling day. However, they were of the view that malpractice on the polling day had little effect on the overall outcome of the elections as pre-poll rigging was more harmful and effective.

“Multiple and bogus voting are the most common methods adopted by candidates on the polling day,” said an experienced polling agent of a political party.

He said these methods were easily adopted in women polling stations due to the fact that majority of the women did not have their photographs on national identity cards. Moreover, he said, normally women polling agents did not recognize all the voters and, therefore, they could easily be dodged.

He said under the rules, no one should be present at the polling booth where voters stamped ballot papers. However, he said, the returning officers managed to depute police constables at the polling booths in the name of security who sometimes themselves stamped ballot papers while guiding the illiterate voters.

Another political agent said even the government at places successfully changed ballot boxes or managed to put bogus votes in them after switching off the electricity supply in the closing hours of the polling.

Sometimes, he said, the police officials claimed that there was a threat of an attack on the polling station and, therefore, they had been directed by the authorities to shift the ballot boxes to a safer place. In this way, he said, the policemen easily changed ballot boxes during the shifting.

When asked why the polling agents failed to check such incidents when they already knew about it, he said, most of the political agents actually did not know the rules and they left the polling stations even before completion of the counting.

He said the polling agents of the possible losers left the venue to avoid embarrassment while the agents of the possible winners left the venue in excitement without receiving the signed copy of the result from the returning officers.

The polling agents were, however, of the view that actually pre-poll rigging mattered a lot in the outcome of the elections, and not the rigging on the polling day.

They said the influential candidates managed to get registered a person as voter in more than one polling stations.