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ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: The 40-day electioneering, the shortest and the most lacklustre ever witnessed in the country’s electoral history, on Thursday culminated in a low turnout of voters in the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad amid pre-poll rigging allegations, eyewitness said.
The 1.5 million voters of the twin cities exercised their adult franchise to elect five National, including two federal capital, and 6 provincial assembly members.
Polling in Rawalpindi and Islamabad remained largely peaceful with no incident of violence reported from any part of the twin cities barring for clashes among the groups of workers of different candidates.
Independent reports about the turnout spoke of around 20-25 per cent voters coming out to exercise their adult franchise and no impact of bringing the voting age down to 18 years seen in the polling.
The overt official support for the candidates of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and some independent candidates was the major factor in the low turnout which, observers said, would be lowest ever in all the elections so far held in the country.
The low turnout reflected that the people were losing faith in the electoral process as no government voted to power in the past was allowed to complete its term.
“It is futile exercise,” said a voter after casting his vote. At a polling booth where only two voters turned up in half-an-hour a polling agent said it was because of the fact that people know their votes could not bring about real change.
Elections were being held only for having a “facade” of democracy and a “lame duck” prime minister since all the powers had already been assumed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, he added.
A woman councillor said Nazmeen and Naib Nazmeen were openly supporting candidates of PML(Q) and some independent candidates.
Though the polling like dull campaign was marred by public disenchantment, 27 candidates vying for two seats of the federal capital territory had set up polling camps outside each polling station.
The candidates had also made elaborate arrangements for pick and drop of the voters to and from the polling booths. Large fleets of vehicles were seen lined up outside election offices of almost all the candidates before the start of polling.
As the polling came to an end, large crowds carrying flags, placards and posters of their respective political parties and candidates gathered outside the polling stations.
The capital city remained quite throughout the day but it came to life in the evening with workers of different parties starting celebrations to keep the morale of their supporters high.
Hordes of motorcyclists, with the silencers of their bikes off, came out on the streets and started making round of polling stations.
Baqir Sajjad Syed adds from Pindi: The turnout in the elections for 3 National and 6 provincial assembly seats of Rawalpindi was low as participation was largely sluggish after allegations of pre-poll rigging and lacklustre electioneering.
Very few votes had been cast at the polling stations till before the conclusion of polling.
There are 0.69 million eligible voters in the 3 constituencies of the city; 674 polling stations had been set up where voting started at 8am and continued uninterrupted till 5pm after which the counting started.
The addition of almost 38000 votes due to lowering of voter age to 18 years was expected to give a breath of fresh air to the general elections, but the inability of Nadra to timely deliver the national identity cards prevented many from taking their first whiff of democracy.
There were frequent complaints of mistakes in the voters’ list concerning voter’s name and other identity particulars that not only created problems for the voters, but some of them even returned back without casting their votes.
A voter at a Satellite Town polling station, Shameem Akhtar, said her identity card number had been wrongly mentioned in the voters list by the election authorities due to which she could not cast her vote.
A polling agent at the same polling station said over a dozen women had to return without casting their votes due to similar problems.
Former federal minister Shiekh Rashid Ahmed, who is contesting elections for NA-55 and NA-56, while talking to reporters at a polling station attributed Nadra’s mistakes in the voters list and their inability to deliver ID cards to the people to the low turnout.
Despite a ban on casting votes on photocopies of the ID cards there were complaints that voters were allowed to cast votes on photocopies. A presiding officer at a women’s polling station confirmed that such a thing did happen at her station.
The low turnout was a bitter experience for Basil, a new voter, who said: “I’d been feeling elated for having qualified to vote, but I feel sorry that the voter turnout has been abysmally low, probably people aren’t aware about the significance of their vote as a tool for change.”
