LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party hopes to perform better in the July 25 vote in Punjab as compared to the party’s performance in the 2013 general election.

The party had won two National Assembly and seven Punjab Assembly seats in the province in 2013 polls when its leader and then president Asif Ali Zardari could not join the election campaign because of court orders.

“We’re determined and hope that this time our performance will be much better than what it was in the 2013 contest,” says Osman Malik, PPP Punjab’s senior leader.

“The vigorous and mature election campaign run by chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and the response it elicited from jiyalas (diehard party workers) as well as general voters are [the factors] boosting our morale and brightening the chances of our party regaining its lost ground in Punjab.”

Unlike the rivals -- Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and PML-N -- the PPP hasn’t arranged any large gathering in the provincial capital featuring its senior central leadership to conclude its election campaign today (Monday) and has left it up to its candidates to go for individual rallies and corner meetings.

Defending his optimism, Mr Malik argues that the party has formed ‘voter mobilising teams’ comprising seasoned workers, whereas the Punjab office is coordinating with the focal persons nominated by the candidates to resolve the problems, if any, being faced by the PPP ticket-holders.

He claims that so far over 50 per cent voter slips have been distributed by the PPP workers and the rest of the job will be done by Tuesday (July 24) evening.

“Unlike the 2013 polls, we’ve plenty of workforce to be assigned duties at camps outside almost all polling stations across the province, while we’ve also got trained our polling agents in all districts through master-trainers from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to effectively check rigging by other parties, monitor and ensure fairness in the polling process.”

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2018