Rain adds to low turnout in Malir Cantt

Not much excitement was witnessed in almost all the 10 wards of the Cantonment Board Malir during the cantonment elections on Sunday. Many people preferred staying at home due to hot and humid weather.

The total number of registered voters in the 10 wards of the cantonment was 36,474, including 19,839 males and 16,635 females. There were overall 25 polling stations with 62 polling booths in the 10 wards. A total of 174 polling staff, including 25 presiding officers and 62 assistant presiding officers, supervised the polls in the Malir cantonment.

In all, there were 62 candidates who contested the elections both independently and on tickets of various political parties.

Most of the electioneering was witnessed in the Ward-3 of the Malir cantonment, comprising its bazaar area. With 9,411 voters, it is also the largest ward of the cantonment. A total of 11 candidates were contesting the election in the ward. According to unofficial results, Lala Imran, an independent candidate who contested on the symbol of apple, won the election. However, the final vote count could not be ascertained when this report was filed.

Political parties had established camps near most of the polling stations to guide the incoming voters and find out their names in the electoral rolls. A brief spell of rain in the afternoon after humid weather also partially affected polling at a few polling stations.

In the Ward-4 of the cantonment comprising the DOHS-11 area, Malik Amanullah Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged victorious with 365 votes while the runner-up was Ali Qasim Syed of the Pakistan Peoples Party with 346 votes.

There were 4,216 registered voters in the ward but only 1,109 of them cast their votes, making a turnout of 26 per cent. The most interesting result was of the Ward-7, the Askari-V area, where PTI’s Muhammad Wasif Shah emerged victorious with the lead of just one vote and the runner-ups were Gulfam Mansha of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Afzal Bhatti of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, who both secured 272 votes.

There were 3,364 registered voters in Askari-V and 1,214 of them cast their votes with a turnout of 36 per cent. In the Ward-2, the Falcon Complex area of the cantonment, Muhammad Afsar Khan of the PTI emerged victorious with 324 votes and the runner-up was Muhammad Ashraf of the Jamaat-e-Islami who polled 222 votes. There were 2,775 registered voters in the ward and 751 of them participated in the election with a 27 per cent turnout.

The results of many wards were still not decided when this story was filed. Malik Muhammad Raza of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emerged victorious in the Ward-1 of the Malir cantonment with 559 votes. Rao Muhammad Ayub Khan of the PTI came second with 301 votes.

In the Ward 9, Saadi Town, Ahmed Yasir of the JI secured victory with 440 votes with the PPP’s Sufi Jahanzabe as the runner-up with 275 votes. There were 2,769 registered voters in the ward and 1,098 of them cast their votes with a 40 per cent turnout.

Zartash Muhammad Khan Malik of the PPP won the election in the Ward-5 with 266 votes. The runner-up was Muhammad Asif of the JI with 62 votes. There were a total of 1,507 registered voters in the ward and 410 of them cast their votes with a 27 per cent turnout.

In the Ward-8 of, Ali Akbar of the PTI emerged victorious with 532 votes and the runner-up was Wajid Shaikh of the PPP with 350 votes. There were 2,978 voters registered in the ward and 1,354 of them voted. The turnout was reported to be 45 per cent.