By NNN-APP
Islamabad : The countrywide polling for general election-2008 is taking place Monday to elect the new national and provincial assemblies amidst foolproof security arrangements. The polling, started at 8:00 a.m will continue uninterrupted till 5.00 p.m, to be followed by vote counts at polling stations and then compilation of result by the Returning Officers for respective constituencies.
The turnout of voters is increasing gradually after noon as compared to the morning and voters are showing enthusiasm for casting vote to their favourite candidates.
President Pervez Musharraf polled his vote at a polling station at Bhindara School in constituency NA-54 while Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro cast his vote in NA-208 Jacobabad-I.
PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif cast their votes at Lahore, PML-Q President Ch.Shujaat Hussain at his native town Gujrat, Co-Chairman PPP, Asif Ali Zardari at Nawab Shah and JUI Amir Maulana Fazlur Rehman cast his vote at his native town Abdul Khel.
The government has made fool-proof arrangements to make the election process transparent and peaceful.
In this regard, strong contingents of Police and Rangers have been posted at the polling stations to maintain law and order. However, there are some reported untoward incidents of firing and scuffle between workers of various political parties in different parts of the country.
Some 1,000 international observers and media persons have reached Pakistan to monitor the polls. Special arrangements have been made to facilitate them in pursuance of their professional duties. Foreign election observers from different countries are also visiting various polling stations countrywide.
It is mentioned here that the general election is being contested for 839 seats of the national and provincial assemblies with at least 81 million voters to exercise their rights of franchise by casting votes across the country.
For the first time, 430,000 transparent ballot boxes are being used at all 64,176 polling stations set up by the Election Commission.
Transparent ballot boxes—one for the national assembly and another for the provincial assembly, are kept for casting of the votes.
Province-wise, polling is taking place for 147 NA seats in the Punjab, 60 in Sindh, 35 in the NWFP, 14 in Balochistan and 11 in FATA.
The breakdown of reserved seats for women is 35 in the Punjab, 14 in Sindh, 8 in the NWFP and 3 in Balochistan. There are 10 reserved seats for non-Muslims.
The main contenders are PML-Q, PML-N and PPP with several smaller groups and parties also trying to test their luck.
Forty-nine political parties have registered themselves with the Election Commission to get the election symbols. However, 13 of them fielded no candidates while 11 have just one candidate each.
The PPP is the largest party with candidates for 207 NA seats, followed by Nawaz Sharif’s PML which has 166 candidates and PML-Q with 154 candidates.
Special voting screens at the polling stations are being used by the Election Commission, which has also put on its website computerized electoral rolls as well as lists of all polling stations.