'Non-starter' NA-240 by-poll culminates in outrage.

KARACHI -- The NA-240 by-elections, which took place on a hot and humid Thursday that also happened to be a working day, started with a very low voter turnout but ended with brisk polling and violent clashes.

Even five hours after start of the polling, the election staff and presiding officers at many stations were found sitting quietly waiting for voters.

At the N.A. Abbasi Govt Boys Secondary School in Landhi No. 2, only six votes were cast by 1pm. But the station was still one of the better ones as by this time there were no votes cast at another station in the C-1 Area.

With so little to go by, one drew one's attention to the party posters flags fluttering at roundabouts and from light poles. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had new flags. Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) had the next best banners and Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) only showed its presence in the shape of wall chalking or a poster here or there.

Election staff remained without EC guidance, essential facilities

Some party workers could be spotted and identified from their caps, T-shirts or monogrammed shirt pockets. The voters already knew which election symbol to stamp. As always PPP was going with the arrow as MQM-P had their kite and PSP the dolphin. The symbol for MQM-H was the candle and for TLP it was the crane. But there were some quite amusing symbols, too, such as a harmonium and pressure cooker for the 25 lesser known contestants.

A leisurely half a day saw mostly elderly voters being accompanied and helped by a responsible family member. Where they were alone, they mostly could not find their polling stations and returned home without casting their votes.

There were several polling stations within one school building. The election staff including presiding officers comprising grade 17, 18 and 19 officers had their own challenges. Although polling stations had CCTV cameras fitted at ideal places, many were sans lights or fans. The polling staff -- all school and college teachers on this special duty -- also remained without any guidance from the Election Commission when they needed it.

'We arrived here last evening to find no working lights or fans,' the presiding officer at the Govt Boys Secondary School in Landhi, Prof Munnawar Abbas, told Dawn, adding that they also did not have access to clean drinking water or working toilets.

'Since we had no prior instructions about where to set up polling stations, we selected some...

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