MITHI, April 20: Election candidates belonging to Tharparkar urged the Election Commission to establish more polling stations in the district to facilitate the voters who otherwise might not be able to cast their votes.
Speaking at “Candidate Forum Programme’ for NA-229 (Tharparkar-I), organised by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), Baanhn Beli and Constituency Relations Programme (CRG) at local press club on Friday.
They said that most of the polling station had been set up at a distance five to 10 kilometres. They said that in a region where there were no pucca roads or modern transport facilities, people might not be able to cast their votes at far flung polling stations.
PPP candidate Faqir Sher Mohammad Bilalani, said that previously elections in Thar had been dominated by ‘uncrowned kings’ of the region who had also colluded with the police and administrative officials for rigging them, hence no common Tharri dared fill out his nomination papers.
However, he said, owing to the PPP a young Thari woman Hajiani Lanjo was contesting this election for the first time in the history of Thar.
Hajiani Lanjo, candidate of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek, said that the elected representatives had never bothered to bring Thari women to mainstream politics who were living a miserable life. She said that she was contesting the election to improve their living standards. “If elected I would try my best to ensure all basic facilities of life in Thar,” she vowed.
