Cantonment Board election held peacefully

LAHORE:Cantonment board elections were held peacefully here on Sunday. No major disruption or law and order occurred except a quarrel in an area where polling was suspended for a little while.

However, early morning heavy rain with random intervals of light shower spells till noon kept the polling slow as majority of roads leading to polling stations in Lahore and Walton Cantonment Board areas remained inundated with ankle-deep rainwater. The cantonment board water and sanitation teams with their vehicles were busy keeping clearing the rainwater but till the end of the day it was unclear. Rainwater accumulated in some polling stations in Sadr and Tufail Road. Political workers faced difficulties in establishing their camps outside the polling stations due to rainwater.

Violation of code of conduct of elections was witnessed as the election commission had restricted that parking points would not be set up in the vicinity of polling stations. However, it was seen in almost every polling station that vehicles of political workers and voters were just parked alongside the boundary walls of the polling station. Police and other law enforcement agencies did not notice parking of vehicles near polling stations despite they kept patrolling the whole day in cantonment areas. CCPO and other police high-ups visited various polling stations and adjoining areas. Police and rangers kept patrolling the whole day.

A major violation of code of conduct was reported on Tufail Road polling station when former commerce minister Hamayun Akthar Khan refused to go to a polling station without his mobile phone. The polling staff refused to entertain the former minister but after getting calls from the high-ups they allowed him to enter the polling station and cast vote with his mobile phone.

Police kept doing physical search of every voter before entering the polling station. CCTV cameras were also installed outside polling stations. In some polling stations, three-layer security protocols, including barbwire, metal detectors, walk-through gates and barriers were installed while in majority of the polling stations only police officials were deputed for checking.

Police in the morning stopped journalists from entering the polling stations despite they had accredited cards issued by Election Commission of Pakistan. Later, on the complaint from the media, journalists were allowed to enter the polling stations.

Major rush was witnessed in PML-N, TLP and PTI camps while the PPP camps were deserted with few workers. TLP camps have a greater rush of voters and campaigners in some polling stations than the camps of PML-N and PTI. PTI and PML-N workers kept chanting slogans in favour of their leaders and parties.