Thousands of people use their right of vote in second phase of LG elections

Mandi Bahauddin(Sher Gondal) : LB election second phase ended. Election began in the morning at 7: AM and continued till 5:30 PM. Total registered voters 519398 had to exercise their right to vote to elect chairman/vice chairman and 6 general councilors for 80 union councils each.

In addition to that the voters had to elect 33, 17 and 12 general councilors for municipal committees of Mandi Bahauddin, Phalia and Malakwal respectively. The district administration has made elaborate arrangements for maintenance of law and order as well as smooth conduct of elections.

Section 144 had been imposed according to which no person would be allowed to carry arm during process of elections. Ban was also imposed on assembly of five persons or more within radius of 300 meters of each polling station. Among 554 polling stations 35 polling stations had been declared as highly sensitive, 212 as sensitive while remaining 301 were normal.

Besides police, three army companies were kept as standby to meet any untoward incident. Over all election process went on smoothly. However clashes of minor nature did take place over casting allegedly fake votes. Such incident took place when two groups clashed at polling station in Wasu UC over casting fake vote.

Police called in army personnel’s who immediately brought the situation under control.  PPP candidate however alleged that police inspector had manhandled him. Similar incident took place in ward number 7 of MC Mandi Bahauddin where PTI and independent candidate supporters clashed with each other over casting fake vote by PTI supporters.

Police timely action cooled down the rivals and polling continued undisturbed. Clash between N and PTI supporters was also reported from Rasul Union Council. Minor quarrels were also reported from Raika and Rakh Bloch union councils.

Overall elections were held in peaceful and transparent manner and no major mishap was reported from any locality of the district. This scribe also visited some polling stations in suburban villages of Mandi and observed smooth conduct of elections. Counting of votes is in progress. PML-N candidates including the independent who mostly belong to ruling party are expected to win more seats.