KARACHI/LAHORE: Polling has ended across Sindh and Punjab during the first phase of the local body elections. Polling ended at 5:30pm.
Multiple incidents of clashes between political party activists were reported throughout the day, the worse being Khairpur, where atleast 11 people were killed and five injured in clashes between PPP and PML-F.
Earlier, voters had lined up outside polling stations as voting for the first phase of the much-delayed local body polls in 20 districts of Sindh and Punjab went underway on Saturday.
Polling started at 7.30am and continued till 5.30pm without any break. In some polling stations, polling began late as presiding officers were not aware of the notification that polling was to be started at 7.30am.
Over 25 million citizens will exercise their right to elect local government (LG) representatives in 12 districts of Punjab and eight of Sindh. Other districts in the two provinces will go to polls in two phases to follow.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has clarified that holding expired computerised national identity cards (CNICs) does not invalidate the voters from casting their votes.
The Central Control Room of ECP is monitoring the polling process. The control room will continue functioning till compilation of the results.
Complaints about the polling can be registered on the control room’s telephone numbers: 051-9204342 and 9210816-9. The last LG polls were held during the era of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in 2005.