MULTAN: Polling for by-election in PP-196 will be held on Thursday (today).

The district government has announced a local holiday in connection with the polls.

The election is being held after provincial minister for prisons Abdul Waheed Arain was disqualified by a local election tribunal for possessing two national identity cards and the Supreme Court also rejected his appeal.

The Election Commission of Pakistan established 133 polling stations and 394 polling booths. The total number of voters in the constituency is 178,000.

Regional Election Commissioner Ghulam Israr Khan told the media that staff had been deployed at all polling stations and all election material distributed.

“To maintain law and order, six companies of Rangers have been hired, while more than 3,500 policemen deployed to avert any untoward incident,” he added.

He said directions had been issued to candidates to follow the code of conduct. The district government has also imposed Section 144 and banned display of weapons, rallies and gathering of people in a large number.

There are 12 candidates however tough competition is expected among PPP’s Muhammad Hussain Arain, PML-N’s Rana Mehmoodul Hassan and PTI’s Rana Abdul Jabbar.

Polling will start at 8am and concluded at 5pm.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2015

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