Daily Times

LAHORE: The polling for by-elections on 20 Punjab Assembly seats concluded on Sunday evening, Provincial Election Commission sources said.

The polling process continued from 8am till 5pm, without any break. However, after 5pm, the voters present inside the polling stations were allowed to cast their votes. Overall polling remained peaceful except for minor incidents of clashes, reported at some places.

Five complaints of clashes and 14 complaints about ‘faulty’ voter lists were received at the control room of the Provincial Election Commission. Provincial Election Commissioner Saeed Gul said that foolproof measures had been adopted for taking polling staff along with results to the returning officers concerned.

He said that a separate vehicle had been arranged for every polling station and special attention would be paid to transportation of the polling staff, vehicles, and security personnel.

Strict security arrangements were made for the by-polls and altogether 50,154 police officials performed patrolling and other duties during the polling process, whereas rangers also remained present as the quick response force (QRF).

There were 4.5 million registered voters, including 2.1 million female voters, and 2.4 million male voters, in the 20 constituencies, and a total of 3,141 polling stations had been established.

About 175 candidates were in the race for the 20 seats which fell vacant after de-notification of dissident members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the provincial assembly.