LAHORE, Sept 16: The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) panel comprising City District Government coordinator Amer Munir and Mehr Mohammed Asif won the run-off election for Ravi Town Nazim and Naib Nazim by a walkover following a boycott by the Jamhoori Group.
Of 602 registered voters of 30 union councils in the town, 479 exercised their right to vote. As many as 470 votes were cast in favour of the PML-Q panel and eight in favour of the Jamhoori Group panel comprising Salman Rafiq and Chaudhry Sarfraz. One vote was cancelled.
The polling was held as the Jamhoori Group had announced to boycott the polls but not intimated it to the Punjab Local Elections Authority.
Brisk voting was observed in the morning as the PML-Q councillors swarmed the polling station and over 350 votes were cast in three hours. The polling was peaceful as the Jamhoori Group was not present outside the Engineering University polling station.
Punjab PML-N president Zulfiqar Khosa, secretary-general Saad Rafiq, provincial PPP president Qasim Zia, Lahore PPP president Misbahur Rahman, JI MPA Chaudhry Shakat and Jamhoori Group candidates Salman Rafiq and Chaudhry Sarfraz had announced the decision to boycott the run-off polls, saying the provincial government had made it impossible for them to contest the same by shifting 450 councillors to Murree. They also accused the government of purchasing votes of the councillors.
Run-off polls had been ordered in Ravi Town for the election of Nazim and Naib Nazim as the PML-Q panel could not be declared winners despite bagging higher number of votes due to failure to meet the legal provision of polling 51 per cent of 602 registered votes during the polling held on Sept 8. They secured 295 votes whereas the Jamhoori Group got 290 votes.
Of 596 votes issued to the councillors from 30 union councils, 594 were cast. Eight votes were rejected while two could not be traced.
Amer Munir is the third Ravi Town Nazim to be elected during the past three years. Offices of Ravi Town Nazim and Naib Nazim had fallen vacant after the resignation of Qaiser Amin Butt and Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rahman for contesting the October, 2002, general elections.