LAHORE: With stakes high, all important NA-120 Lahore by elections are taking place today. The transfer of required material to the polling stations was completed Saturday. The ballot papers and other materials were sent to polling stations under the supervision of army.
Army personnel will guard polling stations throughout Saturday night and the polling day that will begin at 8 AM on Sunday.
Strictest security measures are in place in the Election Commission Punjab. No one apart from presiding officers are allowed inside the building.
A tough contest is expected between PTI candidate Yasmin Rashid and Nawaz’s wife and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s Kulsoom Nawaz. According to the returning officer, there are 44 contestants in total for the by-poll.
In light of the former first lady’s ongoing medical treatment in London, her daughter Maryam spearheaded the campaign in the constituency.
Interestingly none of the top three contestant candidates belong to PML-N, PTI and PPP will be able to cast vote as Kulsoom Nawaz is out of the country and the other two are not registered voters in the constituency.
The ECP earlier said a total of 350,000 ballot papers were printed for the by-poll, where 324,786 voters are registered to cast their vote.
All 220 polling stations were declared sensitive to avoid any untoward incident, police sources had revealed.
The NA-120 seat fell vacant following the disqualification of Nawaz as the prime minister by the Supreme Court on July 28. In the 2013 General Elections, Nawaz had won the seat by a substantial margin, defeating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Yasmin Rashid, who will be contesting for the seat this time around too.
INP