PESHAWAR, May 10: Majority of women polling staff, who reported at Qayyum Stadium to collect election material here on Friday, was seen exhausted and angry at mismanagement there, while some seemed concerned for their security and reluctant to perform duty at sensitive polling stations.
“There was so much mismanagement and indiscipline during distribution of election material,” said Farhat who seemed exhausted after struggling to get election material.
There was neither drinking water nor any shade at the Qayyum Stadium where the polling staff, both male and female, were seen collecting material and bringing together their staff members and security personnel.
“We were dealt with in an inhuman way. I was about to fall when I carried the election material,” said Farhat, who was assigned to perform duty at Shahi Bala.
Most of the women polling staff, comprising government school teachers, told Dawn that they had come at around 9:00am and were going here and there to collect other colleagues assigned to perform at the polling station, material and security personnel assigned to protect them.
Some female polling staff who were lucky to get the election material, including boxes, booth and ballot paper bags, by afternoon were seen carrying the material on their own for a long distance since the vehicles which were supposed to take them to the polling stations were parked quite far away.
Some women wearing burqas (veils) and holding infants, exhausted with thirst and hunger, could hardly hold the election material. The policemen who were supposed to be providing them security were helping them with carrying the election material while others just let the women do the job on their own.
Saima Khan and two other polling staff members, assigned to perform at a polling station at Regi Lalma, said that after getting the ballot-paper bags they kept sitting for quite sometime on a roadside waiting for the vehicle.
“We have heard that it (Regi Lalma) is a sensitive polling station and we feel fear about our security,” said Farzana, a schoolteacher.
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