Polling for the crucial by-elections on Sunday, held in 35 constituencies of the national and provincial legislatures across the country, has concluded peacefully and the counting process is underway. The polling started at 8am and continued until 5pm. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) printed 9.5 million ballot papers for the by-elections in which 641 candidates are contesting. The ECP has reminded the media that no unofficial and unverified results are to be aired before 6pm in accordance with the Lahore High Court orders. Some 9,208,374 voters were eligible to cast their votes in the polling for which 7,489 polling stations were set up. Of these, 1,727 polling stations have been declared extremely sensitive. Closed-circuit television cameras were installed at sensitive polling stations. According to the ECP, 5,881 overseas Pakistanis cast votes in by-polls with an impressive 76 percent turnout. Over 4,600 countrymen living abroad cast votes for National Assembly constituencies while more than 1,000 ballots were polled for Provincial Assembly constituencies. Unofficial preliminary results from 189 polling stations in Rawalpindi’s NA-60 constituency shows that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is in the lead, with Sheikh Rashid Shafiq garnering 23,773 votes. Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PMLN) Sajjad Khan is in second place with 21,656 votes. A clash between PTI and PML-N workers in Rawalpindi’s UC-21 area broke out. As workers resorted to physical attacks, police officials posted in the area failed to contain the violence, according to footage shown on TV. Later, one worker was arrested while another who had fired shots managed to flee. Prime Minister Imran Khan left Mohra More polling station after casting his vote in NA-53. The PM reached to cast his vote for by-elections under tight security. Imran Khan’s vote is registered in constituency NA-53 in Islamabad where Ali Awan has been nominated as PTI candidate. While talking to media, Senior Superintendent Police Islamabad Syed Muhammad Amin Bukhari said that a total of 3,000 policemen would perform security duties on polling day in the capital while NA-53 has been divided into four zones, six sectors and nine sub-sectors. Every zone was supervised by an officer of SP level while sectors and sub-sectors were headed by ASP and Sub Divisional Police Officers as well as Station House Officers receptively. Published in Daily Times, October 15th 2018.