KARACHI: At least two people were killed and several wounded as clashes broke out between rival political parties during polling for local government elections in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Sunday, an official and a political party representative said.
Sunday’s local government elections were held after a two-year gap after several protests and legal battles delayed the process. Polling for elections began at 8am and continued until 5pm, after which the vote count is underway.
Saddam Kumbar, a spokesperson of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said Qaiser Khan — the brother of PTI candidate Zafar Khan Gandapur — was killed, while Gandapur himself got hurt when supporters of a rival political party attacked them in Tando Jam area of Sanghar district. Local media reported the death of another man in Sanghar violence.
A spokesperson for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sindh, Saeed Ahmed Soomro, said authorities took swift action to curb the violence.
“Elections have been postponed in wards where irregularities and violence were reported but everything is under control,” Soomro told Arab News. “The election commission is strongly responding.”
Nearly 10 million people were expected to vote for their preferred candidates in 14 districts of Sindh after a court dismissed a request from major political parties to postpone local government elections in the province last week. Elections in other districts, including Karachi and Hyderabad, will be held in the second phase that is scheduled to take place on July 24.
As per an ECP statement, 8,724 polling stations were established in 14 districts of the province where more than 10.14 million registered voters were expected to participate in the exercise.
The election regulatory authority declared 1,985 polling stations as most sensitive, 3,448 as sensitive, and 3,291 as normal. As per the information by the ECP, 26,545 Sindh police personnel were deployed to ensure peaceful elections. Additionally, 2,980 police and paramilitary rangers were deployed at highly sensitive polling stations.
The elections, however, were marred by mismanagement and violence, where supporters of rival political parties attacked each other with sticks and firearms.
“The election commission has instructed the provincial administration of Sindh to ensure a peaceful voting process by bringing in security personnel from other districts and deploying them where elections are taking place,” Soomro said.
He added the election commission was also in touch with the army and rangers who had ensured it of their full cooperation.
The local government elections were delayed in the province after the federal government failed to publish the results of the 2017 census, halting the delimitation process which was one of the requirements for the electoral contest.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had gone to the Sindh High Court with a plea to defer elections, saying it was important to make changes to the local government act and carry out a fresh delimitation process.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also became a party to the case and sought election postponement.
The court was informed that the provincial government had already submitted its statement before the court and all political parties had agreed to postpone these polls until the enactment of local government laws in line with Article 140-A of the constitution.
The court dismissed the petition and ordered to hold elections on scheduled time.