FAFEN report says Sindh LG polls tainted amid allegations of rigging, results delay
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Karachi: Leading elections watchdog said that second phase of Local Body polls in Sindh “Remained peaceful and relatively orderly, but were tainted by allegations of rigging by major political parties over delay in announcement of results.”
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its report stated that despite controversies and uncertainty over conduct of elections, an impressive number of people turned out to vote in Local Government elections in Badin, Jamshoro, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar, Thatta and Malir districts.
However, it added that voter turnout remained relatively lower in Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi West, Karachi South, Korangi, Hyderabad and Keamari districts.
According to FAFEN, turnout in Hyderabad Division remained more than 40 percent, while in Karachi it was less than 20 percent with exception of Malir. Turnout in Karachi and Hyderabad Divisions remained at 36 and 58 percent, respectively in last Local Government elections held in 2015, it pointed out.
“Election day environment was largely peaceful as FAFEN received only 14 reports of verbal altercations on January 15, 2023, as compared to 55 incidents of violence including some physical and armed clashes during first phase,” it stated. They reported cases where presiding officers did not duly fill out result forms leaving empty sections made for recording polling stations’ names, registered voters, gender-disaggregated number of votes polled and signatures of polling officials.
FAFEN said that MQM-P’s boycott also appeared to have resulted in decline in voter turnout in Karachi and urban Hyderabad. FAFEN deployed 104 observers, including 66 men and 38 women who observed opening process at 90 polling stations, availability of election staff and materials at voting process at 953 polling booths, voter identification and ballot issuance processes for 1,121 voters and counting process at 74 polling stations.
Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 20 2023
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