HYDERABAD:The polling process to elect the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of Union Committees of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation
(HMC) and General Member Wards was held here on Sunday, recording a low turnout of the voters amid incidents of clashes.
The polling started on time at 9 am and concluded at 5 pm.
More than 45,000 people were registered to vote for electing 5 Chairmen and Vice Chairmen in the UC numbers 5, 17, 118, 119 and 137 and as many General Members of the wards in different UCs.
The Election Commission of Pakistan had set up 37 polling stations with 115 booths for the polling.
Although the polling process continued smoothly in most of the UCs, clashes occurred in the polling stations of UC 119 after which the voting process was stopped.
The District Election Commissioner Yousuf Majeedano informed that even the polling staff was manhandled.
According to him, 9 books of the ballot papers were also stolen by the assaulting mob.
The official said they would lodge an FIR against the attackers while action would be taken against the political party whose workers were involved in the attack.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are considered the top contenders.
The PPP bagged 96 seats of Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of UCs out of 153 seats on which the LG elections were held in the second phase on January 15 and the PTI won 41 seats.
The HMC consists of 160 UCs but the election could not be held on 5 seats because of the deaths of the candidates while violence during the January 15 polling led to the cancellation of the voting process.