Residents of the federal capital will go to the polls today to elect local representatives for the first time under the newly-minted Islamabad Local Government Act, 2015.

The last such exercise was held under military rule in 1979 on a non-party basis and was limited to rural areas only.

In this special report, Dawn recounts the electoral history of Islamabad and explains the mechanism and heirarchy of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation.

ISLAMABAD: Although rural parts of the capital voted in one local government election in 1979, residents of the urban areas have never before been given the chance to elect representatives at the grassroots-level.

The psyche of voters differs between the rural and urban parts of the capital. In the rural areas, there is definitely a greater involvement with the electoral process and many residents believe that the representatives they elect on Monday will be able to work towards their betterment in a more effective way.

“We have to visit government hospitals for treatment or have our children enrolled in Islamabad’s model colleges; you can’t do these things if you don’t have connections. Even in interactions with the police, we are faced with rampant thana culture. I hope our local leaders will help us with these issues,” said Raja Adil, a resident of Phulgran.

During a visit to rural UCs, Dawn noted that a majority of voters seemed to be following the decisions of their biradari, or clan. In most cases, the biradari vote seems to be going to the ruling PML-N.

Mohammad Musqeen is a tailor who lives in Bhara Kahu and supports the PML-N. He reasons that voting for opposition candidates is useless, because PML-N is the party at the helm of affairs in the federal capital.

“Even if the PTI candidate wins from our UC, what can he really do for our well being? He won’t be able to make any significant changes, because I’m sure the PML-N will have the mayor and deputy mayor slots. On the other hand, our local MNA Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry was recently made a cabinet minister, so it’s obvious who is in a better position to help us,” he said.

Similar views were expressed by most people Dawn spoke to in Phulgran, Bari Imam, Malpur and Mera Bagwal.

Urban ideologues

The residents of urban areas, however, tend to have more ideological reasons for voting a certain way, which is why parties such as PTI and Awami Workers Party have managed to make a mark.

“If one looks at the provision of basic services to various sectors, it is a pretty uneven picture. A few upscale sectors have everything from well managed playgrounds, round-the-clock water supply, and carpeted roads,” commented Mobashar Ahmad, who lives in I-10/2.

He thought that it would be easier for locals to hold their representatives accountable rather than the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which, over the years, had become a behemoth with little contact with the residents of the city it administered.

Amir Ali, who lives in Sector F-6, will be casting his vote for the first time. “I’ll vote for someone whose educational credentials and manifesto will inspire me. I’m considering voting for the PTI’s Atiq Khan, but let see,” he said, sounding non-committal.

A number of people from the G-sectors, surprisingly, expressed reservations with the local bodies elections.

Abid Hussain, a greengrocer in Sitara Market, told Dawn that CDA had a well-defined system of garbage collection and sanitation, as well as a strict anti-encroachment policy.

“I don’t think local leaders can recommend or take action against their own voters,” he said, predicting that civic problems would multiply under this new system.

Many others seemed undecided even on the eve of polling day. “I haven’t even decided whether I will vote or not,” said I-10 resident Mohammad Ikram.

When asked how he saw election campaigns in Islamabad, seasoned election observer Muddasir Rizvi said that while he thought the door-to-door campaigns were quite aggressive, “let’s see whether or not they translate into a healthy turnout on polling day.”

The electoral outlook of Islamabad residents was different from that in Punjab and Sindh, he said. Here, there was a greater focus on personal contact rather than extensive advertising campaigns.

Voter trends

A look at voting data from the 2013 general elections reveals that while the turnout is more or less uniform – around 60 per cent – in both rural and urban areas, the number of registered voters is greater in the rural parts.

The mostly-urban constituency of NA-48 saw a voter turnout of 59.6 per cent in 2013, which was slightly less than the turnout in the rural NA-49, where some 64.4 per cent of registered voters turned out.

But by contrast, the by-elections held in NA-48 after Makhdoom Javed Hashmi resigned from this seat, the turnout was just 32.1 per cent.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015