KARACHI, Aug 18: A poor strength of election staff, particularly those of assistant presiding officers, caused slow-polling at numerous election booths, which remained a source of concern among voters turning out for the local bodies’ election on Thursday.

Voters normally complained about inadequate accommodation for the polling and not up-to-mark polling staff. Despite the fact that senior officers had been called for election duties from a number of government departments and financial institutions, there was a shortage of assistant presiding officers (APOs), supposed to hand over different ballots papers to voters.

Under the election commission’s standards, at least three APOs are required to deliver two ballot papers each. However, that was not witnessed to have been fulfilled at most polling booths. Presiding officers admitted that a loophole was there, but the prescribed number of APOs could not be observed, as officers were not available from the ECP.