MITHI: Voters go to by-polls today to pick candidate of their choice from among 12 contestants who are running for NA-221 (Tharparkar) and send him to National Assembly.

The NA seat had fallen vacant after the death of Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Pir Noor Mohammad Shah after he had contracted Covid-19 on Dec 20 last year.

Analysts see the real contest between PPP’s Pir Ameer Ali Shah Jilani and Nizamuddin Rahimoon of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and predict an easy win for the PPP candidate.

Thar Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Nawaz Soho said that district administration had taken various measures to hold by-election in the constituency, comprising talukas of Nagarparkar, Chhachhro and Dahli, in a fair and transparent manner.

He said the total number of registered voters in the constituency was 281,900, of whom 157,099 were men and 124,801 were women.

He said that 318 polling stations had been set up, 79 for men, 78 for women and 161 combined polling stations with 857 polling booths, 456 for men and 401 for women. Ninety-five polling stations had been declared highly sensitive and 130 sensitive with 2,350 polling staff deployed.

He said that CCTV cameras had been installed at the highly sensitive polling stations to monitor polling process and ensure security of voters and polling staff on election day.

Tharparkar SSP Sardar Hassan Niazi said that 1,912 police personnel would perform duty at polling stations to ensure peaceful conduct of voting. According to security plan, eight police personnel would be deployed at the highly sensitive polling stations, six at the sensitive polling stations and four policemen would perform duty at the remaining polling stations, he said.

He said that Rangers personnel would also perform duty at the polling stations alongside policemen and a contingency plan had been drawn up to deal with untoward incidents.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2021