Fafen says 2013 elections repeated in LG polls

The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) on Sunday said that the same shortcomings and irregularities were repeated in Saturday's first phase of local government elections in Sindh and Punjab which surfaced in the 2013 general elections.
In its preliminary report about the LB polls issued here, the election watchdog said that purpose of pinpointing the shortcomings of electoral process was to avoid the same in next polls.
Speaking at a press conference, Fafen's Sarwar Bari, Zahir Islam and Zahid Islam said the report was prepared after visiting 249 polling stations in Punjab's 12 districts.
According to the report, 14.6 percent incidents of violence were reported during the polling while the process initiated with a delay in four districts of Punjab; Lahore, Bahawalnagar, Lodhran and Kasur.
Out of total 249 polling stations visited by Fafen teams, at 71 percent security officials were deployed inside and 10 percent outside the polling stations. Percentage of meddling in the polling process remained seven percent.
Bari went on to say that irrelevant people were also allowed to enter few polling stations in Lahore.
In the first phase, LG polls were held in 12 districts of Punjab and eight of Sindh.