ECP says 23 complaints related to polling received on Sunday

KARACHI: After culmination of the polling time, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a statement said 23 complaints of mismanagement were reported during the by-elections in 35 constituencies across the country on Sunday, ARY News reported.

The ECP said 19 complaints were received from Punjab, and two from Sindh and as many from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It said they received complaints of barring women from voting. While, complaints of late polling were received from Karachi, it added.

Vote counting has started in most of the polling stations.

Read More: Polling ends peacefully, vote count begins

The polling for by-elections on 11 national and 24 provincial assemblies has ended without any major disruption amid stringent security.

More than five million registered voters, around 2.3 million women and over 2.7 million men, exercised their right to vote. Overseas Pakistanis voted for the first time in the by-polls through iVoting.

The polling started at 8am and continued till 5pm without any break. A total of 374 candidates are contesting the by-elections.

The major NA constitutes where political bigwigs are contesting include Lahore’s NA-131, where a tough contest is expected between PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique and Humayun Akhtar of PTI. Similarly former PM Shahid Khaqan is vying from NA-124 and Alamgir Khan is contesting from Karachi’s NA-243.

Over 7,400 polling stations had been set up for the by polls. Of these, 1727 were categorized as highly sensitive.