Global Post: KARACHI, Pakistan — Election day is over. Nawaz Sharif’s PMLN party has grabbed the most seats and he’s poised to become the nation’s newest prime minister. The Election Commission of Pakistan claimed the day was a success for the most part, but free and fair elections were not held in Karachi.
What went wrong?
As a first-time voter heading to the polls, I had no idea what to expect. This is Pakistan, after all, and I’m a pessimist.
What I didn’t expect whatsoever was to struggle to vote in the first place. The Election Commission of Pakistan — a government appointed agency that had been planning the details of yesterday — was supposed to have been on top of everything. They’d supposedly ordered extra security at sensitive polling stations, and had released information about the voting process.
I got to my polling station in the morning, hoping to cast my vote before the throngs of people showed up to wait in the blistering heat. Instead, I had to wait 45 minutes past the appointed time for my polling center to open.
Categories: Asia