Islamabad, Jan 22 (EFE).- Security concerns are escalating in Pakistan with parliamentary elections just a fortnight away as more than half of the country’s voting stations are deemed at a higher risk of violence amid a surge in insurgency.
Some 127 million voters will vote to elect their representatives for the parliament and government at more than 92,350 polling stations established across Pakistan by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Out of these, the poll panel has identified 30,441 as “sensitive” and 20,606 as highly sensitive, Nadeem Haider, a spokesperson for the poll body, told EFE on Monday.
It means the poll panel will put extra security measures in these voting stations due to the elevated threat of violence.
Militant attacks have surged in the country, sparking concerns about security arrangements for both the election campaign and polling day.
Violent incidents like the shooting dead of an independent candidate in the North Waziristan district and an attack on a former senator have raised alarms.
Following the attacks, the senate, or upper house of the parliament, passed a non-binding resolution to delay the elections, citing security concerns and a harsh winter in northern areas.
However, only 15 lawmakers out of 100 were present. The ECP refused to further delay the elections, originally due in November last year.
“Thousands of security personnel, including police, army, and paramilitary troopers, will be deployed at polling stations,” Haider told EFE.
He said the deployment of security personnel would be made later based on the category assigned to a polling station.
Pakistanis will vote on Feb. 8 in the 12th national elections marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging, with former prime minister Imran Khan and his top aides in jail and barred from contesting.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has blamed the authorities for not allowing its nominated candidates to run their election campaign freely.
The party has urged its supporters to come out in large numbers on the poll day to vote to “revenge the atrocities with a ballot.”
Apart from militant attacks, the country’s previous election records and the widening divide between workers of different political parties have also raised fears of violence on voting day. EFE
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