LAHORE, April 30: The polling for the Presidential Referendum, 2002, in the Punjab capital on Tuesday lacked lustre and enthusiasm to the extent expected and claimed by the government.
And despite best efforts by the government to mobilize the people for referendum, most of the people remained away from the polling stations.
Apart from those polling stations visited by the governor or the District Nazim, ministers and officials, the other remained deserted for most of the time during the polling hours between 9am to 7pm.
The city administration had ensured that LDA and Wasa employees were present at all the polling stations that were visited by the governor or the Nazim and others to give a semblance of “spirited participation and festive mood” during the polling.
The people did not throng the polling stations as anticipated by the government. Except for a few places, long queues of voters were not to be seen anywhere in the city.
The polling staff attributed the “absence of long lines of voters” to the large number of polling stations set up almost everywhere in the city. “You see we have some five or more polling stations within a radius of one furlong or so,” said a polling officer in Gulberg. Therefore, the officer added, there were no long queues of voters to be seen. By noon, about 80 voters had cast their votes at that polling station.
The provincial election commission (PEC) had set up some 3,907 polling stations each for around 2.854 million voters of 18 years and more. The polling stations had also been set up at hospitals, colleges, universities, airport, railway stations, hotels, banks, provincial civil secretariat, industrial units, parks, jails, and other public places.
The voters were required to present their national ID cards or any other identification or documentary evidence attested by BPS-17 officers to cast their votes.
The city district government had hung hundreds of large banners across the roads in various parts of the city and put up life-size portraits of President Gen Pervez Musharraf. Scores of vans went around the city making announcement in support of the president and induce voters to come out to vote.
The polling officials at a polling station set up at a bicycle factory in Gulberg’s industrial area reported at 11:30am that 242 people, mostly factory workers, had cast their votes. However, in the afternoon they said the number of people coming to cast votes had diminished substantially.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: The overall attendance of students at the universities and the colleges remained very thin as most of them stayed back home. The Punjab University’s New Campus gave a deserted look as only a few students reached there. The polling staff on the campus said the number of students who had voted was not more than a score or so. They said even the number of teachers who had polled their votes was not more than a few.
“Most teachers were away on the polling duty while others stayed back in their departments,” they said. Most votes were polled by the university’s non-teaching staff.
Several women workers of the Jamaat-i-Islami were found on the campus distributing anti-referendum pamphlets among the people, urging them to boycott the referendum.
At 12:30pm, the staff at the Home Economics College for Women said some 100 or so votes had been cast. They said only three students had exercised their right. A similar situation prevailed at the FC College where less than 400 votes had been polled by 2pm. Only a few students polled votes.
PUBLIC PLACES: Overall turnout at polling stations at the public places also remained quite thin. At the four polling stations at the railway station only 3,500 votes were polled till 6pm. The presiding officer at Platform No 2, told Dawnthat a marriage party, including the bridegroom, had also polled their votes. He, however, said most of the voters were men. At the Lahore airport, some 236 votes were polled till 3pm.
At the Racecourse Park, the polling staff had exhausted its 700 ballot papers till 6pm and stopped polling. The presiding officer at the polling station said almost all votes were polled by the staff working at the Racecourse Park and the PHA. He claimed that he had informed the provincial election commission to provide more ballot papers.
At the Services Hospital, the polling station recorded polling of over 1,400 votes. The polling was inaugurated and supervised by hospital medical superintendent Dr Riaz Chaudhry.
WOMEN PARTICIPATION: The women participation in the referendum was quite negligible in most parts of the city. A very small number of women had come out to poll their votes although the supporters of the referendum had arranged transport for them at many places.
CANTONMENT: The referendum activities in the Aziz Bhatti and Shalimar towns remained a dull affair, failing to invoke the traditional enthusiasm normally associated with such occasions.
The prime reason for the dullness was the absence of any yardstick to gauge the success and failure of the unfolding events of the day. Since ascertaining percentage of voters was not an option available to the reporters because of the open procedure of voting, no one knew how the day was progressing. This uncertainty gave both sides —- proponents and opponents of the referendum —- an opportunity to interpret them according to their own wishes.
Though some islands of thinly-crowded polling stations were witnessed in the areas like the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and the Cavalry Grounds, but they were largely overshadowed by the deserted-looking places like Gulberg or localities along the canal.
“The army seems to be fighting the referendum as an institution,” said one political worker. “Just look at the difference between the ratio of turnout of voters in the localities where army officers are living and where they don’t, and one can explain anatomy of voting pattern in the city,” he said.
Both towns were festooned by a thick layer of supportive banners and countless number of camps, but occupants of these tents were giving more of a perfunctory look. Conspicuous by their absence were the sponsors of these tents. Hardly any of the sponsors cared to sit in the camps and enthuse people.
“People already know the result,” claimed another disenchanted political worker. Those trying to support the referendum are doing so only to register their loyalty for some benefits in the post-referendum dispensation. This also explains their turbid attitude as far as referendum is concerned, he maintained. Another striking feature of the day was the absences of private or public transport, impounded for the purpose of carrying people to the polling stations, from the city roads. But this absence was explained away by a presiding officer, saying that every nook and corner of the city had more than required polling stations. That makes even normal traffic volume redundant for the voters leave alone additional one.
The arrangements for referendum were so elaborate that even 100 per cent of 2.8 million city voters could have easily voted in these towns. This over-arrangements approach seemed to have backfired on the organizers; most of these stations looked deserted and lacked lustre.
Most of the banners were sponsored by traders bodies and civic organizations. Individual support, so important for generating grass-root enthusiasm, was largely missing. Some of the political parties supporting the referendum, though put up tents but failed to bring enough workers to give these camps a festive look. Since the ink being applied on the thumbs of the voters was not strong enough to withstand washing, many people were also seen casting votes at more than one polling stations.
COUNCILORS AND TRADERS: No councillor or traders organization practically came out in the open to motivate the masses for casting votes in the presidential referendum on April 30 as voters were the rarest of the rare commodity throughout the day. While there was also no worthwhile activity on the part of the political entities supporting the exercise.
There was no polling station in Nishtar Town and Iqbal Town where the total vote cast crossed the 50 mark (with six to 12 ballots per booth) by noon.
This reporter visited 30 houses and interviewed as many traders/shopkeepers at random in Green Town, Township, Johar Town, Faisal Town, Model Town, Garden Town, Iqbal Town and Ichhra. But not a single household or shopkeeper declared that the campaigners for Gen Pervez Musharraf had approached them to seek votes.
However, some union council Nazims had got distributed pamphlets a day before (on April 29) guiding the people about the nearby polling stations and urging them to come out of their houses and exercise their right to vote.
Some of them had hired motorcycle-rickshaws, Rs500 per three-wheeler for the referendum day, to transport voters (if any) to polling stations. These vehicles were seen plying in the residential areas with children having a joy ride.
When contacted, some councillors said they could not face their voters, especially after the publication of the news that they had been given funds to motivate their areas’ people for casting their vote.
Moreover, there was also no worthwhile performance to the credit of Gen Musharraf in solving the problems faced by the general public, they said. “Rather the seizing of public transport and forcing the government employees to attend meetings of the general had annoyed the voters.”
Some of them admitted that they remained sluggish “for it is an established fact that whatever is the turnover Musharraf is all set to win the referendum.”
Almost all of the polling camps set up by the Qaumi Tajir Ittehad wore a deserted look, while at some places not a single person was present at these camps. No potable water was also available there. The same was the situation at the camps set up by local traders organizations.
At a polling station in Township where only 12 votes had been cast by 11am, the polling staff whispered to this reporter, taking him a government official that Nazimeen should be immediately moved to motivate the councilors who could bring voters out of their houses.
There also seemed that the government agencies could not convey the rules and regulations set for the referendum to the masses. Many people were unaware of the fact that they could cast their vote at any place in the country.
A trader of Q-Block, Model Town, said as he was registered in the Ichhra area, he would close his shop earlier in the evening to go there and exercize his right to franchise.
In city’s posh localities, like Model Town, Gulberg and Shadman, people from the suburban areas were seen being brought to the polling stations on tractor-trolleys to “improve” turnout.
YOUTH: The referendum polling scene was dominated by boys and girls at some polling stations set up at private colleges.
They were of the view that to cast a vote was something what they had never experienced before. “All of us cast votes with a sense of competition with each other, If you cast, I do” said students of a computer college.
They said most of them stamped “yes” votes, because it was no use casting votes if they were to stamp “No”. “We have got nothing to do with the result of the referendum. For us it is a funfair”, they said.
The people who cast votes in the early hours of the day were employees of the private enterprises where polling booths were set up inside their workplaces. They were directed by their employers to cast votes as early as possible.
One Pervez, an employee of the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak), said he was in a hurry to poll his vote because his boss had asked him to do so and there was a possibility that he might check the ink mark on his thumb.