The by-elections for one National Assembly (NA) and three Punjab Assembly (PA) seats will be held in the city today.
Political pundits are predicting a close race between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and for the former to come out on top.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) completed its arrangements to conduct the polls in a transparent manner. The election campaign ended on Tuesday night and although none of the candidates were allowed to hold election rallies ‚ they were permitted to carry out door-to-door campaigns.
The ECP directed the returning officers to send the unofficial results immediately after the vote count via fax and the official results by using the computerised result management system.
According to ECP, the polling will start at 8am and end at 5pm. There are 28 candidates contesting for one NA and three PA seats in Lahore. There are a total of 638 polling stations where 786,628 registered voters including 468,267 males and 318,361 females would be allowed to vote for the candidates of their choice.
SECURITY PLAN: Acting CCPO Muhammad Tahir Rai issued the security plan for the by-elections according to which the city’s 638 polling stations were divided into three categories A, B and C.
110 polling stations were declared sensitive and placed in category ‘A’.
According to security plan four police officials, special force and volunteers would be deputed at each polling station. Army personnel would also be deputed at every polling station. Election material had already been delivered to the polling stations under the supervision of police and army personnel.
The purpose of the police and army deputation was to stop rigging, disruptive behavior and violence during the polling period. More than 7,000 cops and 4,500 soldiers would perform their duties on the Election Day. Every SP, DSP and SHO would be considered as duty incharges and would be responsible for foolproof security during polling.
Furthermore, Rai requested the administration and the public to cooperate with police and in case they observed any illegal activity.