KARACHI, Oct 10: The turnout of voters, on a hot October day, in most of the constituencies here was very low due to defective voters lists, amid allegations of official patronage of some of the parties.

Polling in many places was delayed as the authorities changed polling stations without any prior notice and also because the seal, which a voter has to use for casting vote, was missing from the sealed bags which the Election Commission had provided to various polling stations.

Polling was also dominated by allegations and counter-allegations traded between the two factions of the MQM. In some areas polling stations were not at prominent places or easily accessible. At many polling stations agents of several candidates were not present. There were also reports that at some polling booths the election staff was short.

Similar was the situation in NA-241 and NA-242 in Orangi Town. NA-241 comprises two provincial seats: PS-93 and PS-94. The connected provincial assembly seats in Orangi Town.

Pathan voters had turned up in strength at a Pathan Colony polling station where voting had to be slowed down due to the absence of a election staff.

The turnout of women voters, which was considered crucial for the success of a candidate, was negligible. In the ladies polling booth at Government Primary School in sector 10 of Orangi polling agents of many candidates were present when this reporter visited it about 10:30am. Though there were more than 3,000 registered women voters, not many of them cast their votes. There were about 2,000 male votes in the two polling booths here.

An elderly man, Saeedullah Khan, complained that despite the fact that he was a resident of the area, his name was not in the voters list. Another man, Jameel Ahmed, who was helping Mr Khan, showed his NIC card which he had used in previous voting, but today the presiding officer refused to allow him to vote.

The polling station at Al-Faisal School in Orangi sector 7 was hardly at a prominent place as required under the Election Commission laws.

It hardly qualified to be a polling station. There were 1,222 registered votes here. Only the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s election agent was present in the booth; others were missing.

Presiding officer Javed said voting could not begun here until 10:50am because the seal, which voter used for casting their votes, was missing from the sealed envelope.

In KMC Orangi Secondary School voting began 45 minutes late for the same reason. By 11:30 out of 3,000 registered voters only 320 of them had exercised their right of franchise.

Some supporters of the MQM (Muttahida) complained that the voters list was defective. Many people who possessed the national identity card could not cast their votes as their names were not in the list.

At the end of the day some parties reported that the Muttahida, which had accused the rival Haqiqi of obstructing their entry into some of the “no-go” areas, had allegedly taken over some of the polling booths in NA-240 and PS-92, NA-241 and PS-94; NA-242 and PS-95; NA-246 and PS-105 and 106; and in NA-252.