PESHAWAR, April 30: The presidential referendum was held in a peaceful manner recording a low turnout across the NWFP and its adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas on Tuesday.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s bid to get extended his term in the office for five years for the continuation of his government’s reforms programme received little response in the urban and rural areas throughout the NWFP and Fata.

The members of the union councils and Nazims of all the 23 districts and one tribal agency in the Frontier province have failed to mobilize their supporters to cast their votes in favour of President Musharraf.

The visits by Dawn’s the correspondents to polling stations in Peshawar, Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Mardan, Mingora, Swabi, Charsadda, Kohat revealed that small number of people turn up to cast their votes at all these places.

In several parts of the province including some pockets in the suburbs of Peshawar, elders and notables of the areas concerned decided against the holding of women polling.

However, voters turnout remained very low, apparently, causing major setback to the government’s bid to win approval for its reforms programme.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Ittehad, former president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari’s Millat Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao’s PPP appeared to be non-existent with no one of these could muster the people’s support for the presidential referendum.

However, polling stations set up in the provincial civil secretariat, Pakistan Television, Peshawar Centre, Radio Pakistan, Peshawar centre, Income tax commissionerate (Peshawar), Peshawar international airport, Railways station (Peshawar) and the public sector hospitals in Peshawar were some of the sites which presented rare scenes showing polling related activities much greater than at any other polling stations in Peshawar.

Reports received from other parts of the province also suggested that the turnout at the polling stations specifically set up for the employees of the federal and provincial governments was higher than polling stations set up elsewhere.

Despite the fact that the administration had impounded several hundreds of public transport vehicles, administration and elected councillors failed to utilize these vehicles in the interest of the federal government.

All those bureaucrats and technocrats who usually do not cast their vote in general elections have polled their votes along with their subordinates.

According to polling figures collected by Dawn from various polling stations in Peshawar, the voters turnout remained less than 15 per cent as large number of the voters preferred to stay away from the polling stations.

Use of unfair means on the part of elected councillors was also reported from various parts of the province where polling staff in connivance with the councillors polled bogus votes.

“I have been performing the election-related duty several times in the past but this time round it is not more than a day out to relax with election related hustle and bustle,” said a presiding officer requesting anonymity while talking to Dawn .

Although polling was to start at 9:00am, in several of the polling stations in Peshawar the first vote was polled after 11:00am.

Allah Nawaz Khan adds from Dera Ismail Khan: A very cold response was meted out to the referendum. Lack of people’s enthusiasm was observed at almost all the polling stations.

Iqbal Hoti adds from Mardan: A low turnout was recorded with a larger number of eligible voters staying away from the polling stations especially the women voters here on Tuesday.

Ali Hazrat Bacha adds from Mingora: The referendum attracted least attention of the voters in Swat district, as the common people remained off the polling stations and in some areas the election staff members were observed casting the votes for others. The women votes were next to nil.