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International desk, July 25: Pakistan’s 11th general election is scheduled to be held today, with 105.95 million voters expected to head to the polls to vote in their respective constituencies across the country. The battle is set to come down to three parties: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Voting begins at 8am, with a total of 371,388 army personnel deployed at 85,000 polling stations as a precautionary security measure. Polling ends at 6pm, after which polling staff will begin the vote count. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has requested the media not to air unofficial results before 7pm (PST). The government has declared July 25 a public holiday in an effort to encourage maximum voter participation. A day earlier, presiding officers collected polling apparatus — including ballot boxes and other voting material — from ECP’s distribution centres across Pakistan in the presence of police and army personnel. The material was then transported to polling stations amid strict security. Voters lists were put up at polling stations as well as the code of conduct for election day. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police have arranged surveillance vehicles equipped with live video streaming cameras. The specially prepared surveillance vehicles will have four cameras each installed on them which will be able to detect a human body from a mile’s distance. Election campaigns came to a close on Monday night — as directed by the ECP — with PML-N and PTI leadership rounding off their campaigns by predicting victory for themselves. On the last day of canvassing, PTI chief Imran Khan addressed four meetings in Lahore, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif concluded his party’s election campaign by holding a public meeting in Dera Ghazi Khan. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari addressed people in Shahdatkot, Garhi Khairi, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Garhi Yasin before going to the graves of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “Despite all odds PML-N is winning the July 25 polls. We will form the government at the Centre and in Punjab as our victory is certain,” said Sharif addressing the crowd in D.G. Khan. He urged the people to vote for his party to “free Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz from jail”. Khan addressed rallies at strategic points in Lahore to prop up his party’s chances. One of his rallies was organised in the constituency from where he himself is a contestant, facing a big challenge from tough-talking PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique. “This is the time to change your destiny. You must come out to vote on July 25. You must bring others out to vote on the day,” he thundered. The general election has been criticised by some quarters for not being “free and fair”. Questions have been raised over the role of the armed forces in the polling process; restrictions being placed on the media; participation of banned groups; NAB pressure on election candidates as well as the detention of political workers in the run-up to the polls. Days ahead of the polls, former Senate chairman and PPP stalwart Raza Rabbani hit out at the ECP’s “criminal silence” over perceived irregularities in the run-up to the polls, warning of “dire consequences” for the government if the elections are “engineered”. SURVEY FINDINGS A public opinion survey conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and the Herald magazine shows that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) enjoys a slim lead at the national level over the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). This lead of 4 percentage points is outside the survey’s national margin of error – + 1.3 percentage points. The Herald-SDPI survey finds that 14 per cent of the respondents in Punjab remain undecided. It is this group of voters that will clearly determine the final result of the 2018 election. This finding is consistent with the polls conducted by Gallup and Pulse Consultants during May 2018 which also show that undecided voters hold the election in Punjab in the balance. Source: dawn.com
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चुनाव आयोगले आमनिर्वाचनको नतिजा आज सार्वजनिक गरेको छ । मतगणनाको परिणाम अनुसार पूर्व क्रिकेटर इमरान खानको पार्टी तेहरिक–ए–इन्साफले ११४ स्थान जितेको छ । यद्यपि, खानको पार्टीले सरकार गठनका लागि आवश्यक १३७ स्थान प्राप्त गर्न सकेन । बुधबार भएको निर्वाचनको मतगणनामा ढिलाई भएको भन्दै चौतर्फी आलोचना भइरहेको बेला निर्वाचन आयोगले अन्तिम परिणाम आज सार्वजनिक गरेको हो । प्राप्त विवरण अनुसार, प्रमुख तीन दल तेहरिक–ए–इन्साफले ११४, पूर्व प्रधानमन्त्री नवाज शरिफको पार्टी पाकिस्तान मुस्लिम लीगले ६३ र पाकिस्तान पिपुल्स पार्टीले ३९ स्थान जितेका छन् । कूल ३४२ स्थान रहेको पाकिस्तानी संसदमा २७२ स्थानका लागि प्रत्यक्ष निर्वाचन हुने गर्दछ । बाँकी सदस्यहरु महिला र अल्पसंख्यक समुदायहरुका लागि आरक्षित गरिएका छन् । सरकार गठनका लागि आवश्यक बहुमत (१३७ स्थान) प्राप्त नगरेका कारण इमरान खानले अन्य साना दलसँग गठबन्धन निर्माण गर्नुपर्ने परिस्थिति उत्पन्न भएको छ । खानको दलका प्रवक्ता फवाद चौधरीले गठबन्धन सरकार निर्माणका लागि साना दल र सहयोगी दलहरुसँग वार्ता सुरु भइसकेको बताउनुभएको छ । तर, सरकार गठनका लागि केही दिन लाग्न सक्नेछ । पार्टी अध्यक्ष इमरान खानले आफ्नो पार्टी चुनावमा विजयी भएको घोषणा गर्नुभएको छ । “पाकिस्तानी जनताका अघिल्तिर म प्रण गर्दछु कि पाकिस्तानको बागडोर मैले सम्हाले लगत्तै विगतमा भन्दा बिल्कुल भिन्न किसिमबाट म मुलुकलाई अघि लैजानेछु,” खानले भन्नुभयो । उहाँले मुलुकबाट भ्रष्टाचार निर्मूल गर्ने, कामै नलाग्ने अवस्थामा पुगेका सरकारी निकायको क्षमता सुदृढ गर्ने तथा सम्मान र समानताका आधारमा परराष्ट्र सम्बन्ध विकास गर्ने बताउनुभयो । उहाँका विपक्षी र मानव अधिकार समूहहरुले चुनावमा व्यापक धाँधली भएको आरोप लगाएका छन् । उनीहरुले चुनावमा पाकिस्तानको शक्तिशाली सेना र गुप्तचर निकाय आइएसआईको संलग्नता रहेको दाबी गरेका छन् । खानले भने मुलुकको ७१ वर्षको इतिहासमा पहिलोपटक सबैभन्दा पारदर्शी चुनाव भएको बताउनुभयो । (रासस/एपी)