KARACHI, 3 July — Two bomb blasts in Karachi, sporadic incidents of violence elsewhere and electoral mismanagement in some places marred the largely peaceful local elections held in 30 districts of military-ruled Pakistan yesterday. Three Afghan children collecting garbage were injured by the two crude bombs hidden in garbage dumps in Karachi, hospital sources said. Reports from the largest city of Pakistan said both the incidents took place in areas which used to be dominated by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) until its leader Altaf Hussain fled the country to seek asylum in England in 1992.
Security personnel were out in force throughout the country after prepoll violence in the troubled city of Karachi left five people dead, officials said. Thousands of army personnel, police and paramilitary forces were deployed to prevent trouble as MQM boycotted the polls.
Turnout was as low as 10 percent in MQM-dominated areas as the killing of five persons in the run-up to the elections had spread terror in the city which has been long ridden by political, ethnic and religious violence. But turnout was reported to be above 50 percent in MQM-free districts of Karachi.
Polling was also reported to be brisk at other places in the populous province of Punjab, the North West Frontier Province and southwestern Baluchistan. In the northwestern city of Peshawar, several people were injured in scuffles between supporters of rival candidates over charges of irregularities at women-only polling stations.
Nearly 75,000 candidates, including 15,000 women, are contesting more than 35,000 seats in 30 district governments in all four provinces of Pakistan. Mismanagement and disorganization was most evident in Rawalpindi where voters found the names of their candidates missing from the ballot paper.
The MQM, which swept the last council elections in Karachi in 1987, boycotted the polls over alleged gerrymandering of constituency boundaries and urged voters to stay indoors. “We have decided to boycott the polls in Karachi because we don’t think the military regime has a right to make changes in the constituencies,” MQM deputy chief Nasreen Jalil said.
