World | Pakistan
Poll drive ends on uncertain note
Campaigning for tomorrow's elections to the federal and provincial assemblies ended here at midnight on Saturday.
- By Aftab Kazmi, Bureau Chief
- Published: 01:26 February 17, 2008
Islamabad: Campaigning for tomorrow's elections to the federal and provincial assemblies ended here at midnight on Saturday.
Candidates and leaders of political parties wrapped up their campaign with final rallies as uncertainty over voter turn out and fear of violence persisted.
Despite worries of suicide blasts, most streets, parks and crossroads were packed with candidates' supporters, affecting traffic.
The polling tomorrow will be from 8am to 5pm and will be followed by counting.
The Election Commission of Pakistan says it has distributed ballot papers and necessary equipment to all polling stations.
A blast at an election meeting in the North-West Frontier Province yesterday killing dozens of people has further aggravated fears about security risks during the election. Quetta, Jhelum and Parachinar have been the cities worst hit by the violence since the poll process began.
Exaggeration
Nazia Ahmad, a supporter of a candidate in Islamabad, said female voters are particularly worried about election-day violence.
She accused the news media for exaggerating security threats. She said the government has made arrangements to tackle disturbances.
"You know elections cannot be 100 per cent safe in our country as party workers do clash with each other," she added.
The main rivals in the electoral battle in Islamabad are the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and PML-Nawaz. The capital city has two National Assembly seats.
Syed Kaleem Imam, the city's top police official, told Gulf News there are credible security threats but tight security measures have been taken. "We have deployed more than 3,600 police officials," he said. About 800 paramilitary troops have also been deployed as a second line of defence.
Army contingents have been put on alert in sensitive areas but they have been asked to stay off the scene until the civil administration calls for their help, he said.
Tomorrow's elections to the National Assembly and provincial legislatures in Pakistan would cost a record $3 billion (Dh11 billion), according to a survey.
Projections by the survey, carried out by a team of journalists, say the whopping amount includes expenditures incurred by the federal and provincial governments, the Election Commission, donors, political parties and candidates.
In the absence of any comparable consolidated figures of election-related spending during the 2002 elections, it was not possible to work out the exact increase in the aggregate expenditure, Dawn newspaper said on Saturday. "However, most analysts believe, and candidates admit in private conversation, that the expenditure this year is three times more than the last election," the newspaper said.
"The increase is mainly due to a sharp rise in security costs this time."
- IANS
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