KARACHI, Aug 18: Election in many areas of Gulberg, North Nazimabad and New Karachi towns (formerly the central district) on Thursday appeared an affair dominated by diehard and active supporters of various political parties with enthusiasm among general voters being visibly low.
In the early hours of the polling, the pace remained very slow. Only 17 voters, all male, had cast their vote in the first two hours at one of the booths set up at the Ibrahim Ali Bhai KMC School, Block 20, F B Area whereas only three women had cast their vote at a booth in Allama Iqbal School near Sohrab Goth till 10.30am.
An eyewitness observed that the number of voters at a polling station at around 10.15am was less than the strength of a convoy of a law-enforcement agency, led by its senior most official, that visited the polling station.
Referring to the lacklustre response, an auto-rickshaw driver said “the reason is that people have been disenchanted in the past. We don’t see any force in ballot, because our destiny is in the hands of vested interests.”
However, many elderly people and government employees were found serious and enthusiastic. “Despite all odds, we have developed a habit of using our right to franchise, with the belief that casting vote, irrespective of results, is our national duty,” said a senior citizen while coming out of a polling booth in the Government College of Education, Federal B Area, at around 4.45pm.
According to rough estimate, the over all turnout at polling booths in the three towns ranged between 17 and 40 per cent.
In the early hours of polling at most of the polling stations in these towns, political workers and relatives of the concerned candidates had managed to mobilize people. However, at several polling stations, a brisk polling with considerably higher turnout was noticed.
Under an overcast sky, about 400 voters were seen having formed a queue outside the Abdullah Girls College, where polling was in progress for UC-2, North Nazimabad, at 11.40am. The voters had come mainly from Pahar Ganj, a locality dominated by Christian community, and the nearby pockets of Pushto-speaking people. Many of them said that they had been waiting for their turn for at least one-and-a-half hour. However, the situation inside appeared entirely different.
Upon inquiry, it appeared that the election staff was working sluggish and inadequate, some of them seemingly not fully trained. In one booth, only 15 (male) votes were cast while in another one, five (female) voters had been entertained in about four hours.
A female presiding officer at the same polling station claimed the staff was supposed to entertain 30 voters an hour in ideal conditions. She maintained that most of the voters so far entertained appeared illiterate and had to be guided properly. She also complained of interference by representatives of the concerned candidates in the process.
A similar situation was observed at the Shipowners’ College where voters complained of slow process, saying that it took them several hours to reach the booth.
Some of the polling booths in North Nazimabad, New Karachi and other towns were established in private educational institutions which were not spacious enough to accommodate the election staff and voters.
In one of the booths in Khamiso School (UC-9), 130 out of 475 male votes were cast while in another one, 34 out of 170 were cast till 2.55pm. In the women’s booth, 27 out of 150 votes were cast.
The number of voters outside the polling station at Sheikh Saadi School was comparatively high. It appeared that the MQM, MMA and Sunni Tehrik had all managed to mobilize their voters successfully in this area.