Election campaign across the county is likely to gain momentum from today onwards, as the last phase of pre-poll preparation was completed on Friday.
“The deadline for candidates to withdraw their nomination papers expired on Friday and the Election Commission will publish the final list of candidates and their parties on its website after compiling the data in a couple of days,” an ECP official told a private TV channel on Friday.
The process of submission of party ticket certificates by contesting candidates has also concluded.
It is mandatory for every candidate to submit the party ticket on which he or she wishes to take part in the upcoming polls. In case a candidate fails to submit a party ticket, he would be considered an independent candidate.
Meanwhile, election campaign in NA-49 and 48 is already in full swing as candidates are desperately wooing voters to vote for them. However, despite massive campaigning, the response from the people is not appreciable as most of the party camps are seen empty.
Candidates are using all available tactics during their campaign to gather votes from the residents of their respective constituencies. Many candidates have hired professionals to design their posters and run their campaigns in the city.
The political parties and their candidates are using panaflex, banners and posters to publicise their slogans, flags and manifestos. Social media has also become a useful tool for the politicians to disseminate their messages to the masses effectively. It is being used as a launching pad for election campaigning by almost all the major political parties and for candidates who have websites and profile pages on popular social networking sites.
Catchy messages based on political affiliations and promises are being circulated to gain the maximum support of the people. Parties have also hired the services of information technology (IT) experts for this purpose as it is the fastest way of conveying messages to millions of people simultaneously.
At a dialogue held at FAST National University of Islamabad on April 19, it was deduced that the participation by the youth in these elections would be unprecedented.
At a seminar held on the “Importance of Effective Participation of Youth in Election 2013”, a participant said, “The country’s better future is linked with democracy therefore youth should understand and support democracy, if youth want to bring change in country then they should fully participation in elections. Educational institutes should initiate debates to engage the students and youth in the politics. Mere casting of votes is important but not sufficeint”.
