Cantonment board elections: 84 polling stations declared sensitive

KARACHI: A total of 84 polling stations have been declared highly sensitive in Karachi ahead of the cantonment board elections that are scheduled on 12 September. According to details, elections will be held in six cantonment board areas of the city and the authorities have declared 84 polling stations in them as highly sensitive.

In the Faisal cantonment, 88 polling stations have been established with 18 declared high sensitive and 54 as sensitive. The Korangi cantonment board has 16 highly sensitive stations.

Clifton and Karachi boards have in total 154 polling stations of which 41 are declared highly sensitive and 113 as sensitive. Nine out of 25 polling stations in the Malir cantonment have been declared highly sensitive while 16 are declared sensitive.

The sources said that the process of ballot paper printing for the elections scheduled on 12 September has been completed.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seek the Pakistan Army's assistance in ensuring transparency in the upcoming local bodies elections in cantonment boards across the country.

PTI Chief Organiser Saifullah Niazi wrote a letter to the ECP stating that the deployment of the army troops at polling stations was inevitable given the past experiences of rigging in elections in the country.

The cantonment board polls could be rigged in the absence of electronic voting machines (EVMs), he apprehended, adding local political players might resort to dishonest tactics, including bogus votes, to win the election.

He asked the ECP to seek the assistance of the army in holding fair elections.

The cantonment board polls will take place on Sept 12. Major political parties, including the PTI, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), have fielded their candidates for the polls.