GUJAR KHAN – Anomalies in voter lists that subjected families to moving in helter and skelter to different polling stations, leading to low turnout on election day.
Many voters have pointed out that votes of their family members, living in the same houses and localities, were registered at different polling stations in various villages.
Maqaddas Sultana said that her vote was earlier registered in the village Jhamaat of Gujar Khan along with her husband. She regretted that her and that of her son vote was shifted to a far off location, Barki Budhaal. She further regretted that her daughter’s new vote was registered to another polling station of Negail Pehlwan. Similarly, almost half of the voters from Negail Umer Khan village were also enrolled in Barki Budhaal locality of the Gujar Khan city.
Similarly, Danial Saghir, a Christian voter in Daultala Town, regretted that his wife’s vote was ironically shifted to Tajo Jhangi, some 20km from Daultala, without any reason.
Similarly, the residents of Negail Kalan village said that their votes were registered in Jhamaath village, some 6km from their residences, while a polling station in Negail Pehlwan is established near their locality, but they have to travel a long distance.
Raja Shaukat, a resident of Mohra Ferozan village in the Jand Mehloo Union Council, pointed out that voters of his village were forced to cast their votes in Aheer village. He said that the road link to Aheer village causes them to travel 15km in a circle, and the ladies, senior citizens, and patients mostly refrained from voting.
On the other hand, suspension of mobile phone service also caused a large number of voters to complain that their connectivity and the facility to identify their vote locality through SMS were also unavailable, thus an unexpected shifting of votes could not be verified.
The residents have demanded that rationalisation of vote and polling stations should be carried out on the basis of fresh surveys well in time and the voters should be allowed to get their votes registered according to their choice.
