Daily Times

PESHAWAR: At least 25 members of the transgender community were barred from entering polling stations in Peshawar to perform the duty of ‘observers’ despite being issued the accreditation cards by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Reportedly, such sporadic incidents have hampered the otherwise smooth process of balloting.

The transgender community informed the poll panel about the KP police officers’ behaviour, but no action had been taken against them.

Meanwhile, another transgender observer was stopped at Afghan Colony by the security forces despite of having an ECP accreditation card.

Moreover, there were no adequate facilities to assist disabled and senior citizens in polling stations across Peshawar.

There have been several complaints received by the ECP over delay in voting process. The voting process at union council (UC) 73 in Peshawar took 10-15 minutes per vote, whereas in NA-30, the process had been prolonged by 45 minutes as only 243 out of the total 2,181 voters could cast their vote till 11am.

Later, the voters buzzed Twitter to complain about the sluggish process of voting.

Many of them claimed that their votes were allegedly mixed up by the polling agents at the Government Girls’ Primary School No 3 J-4 in Hayatabad for seat NA-30.

Long queues were also observed in many polling stations amid scorching heat of summer.

Published in Daily Times, July 26^th 2018.