The people of 17 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) districts will step out of their homes Sunday to elect thousands of local government representatives including 65 mayors/tehsil chairmen.
It is expected to be a heated election as nearly half of the polling stations have been declared sensitive and rigging allegations have surfaced hours before the start of the polling.
Around 37,000 candidates are running for the election. This may sound like a huge number but each of the 2,382 Village Councils/Neighbourhood Councils that go to poll will elect six to seven councillors. In rural areas, they are called Village Council (VC) and in urban areas Neighbourhood Councils (NC).
Of the 37,00 candidates, about 700 vie for the 4 mayoral and 60 Tehsil chairman seats up for grab. Divisional headquarters of Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, and Bannu will elect mayors.
The election for the fifth mayoral seat from Dera Ismail Khan was postponed on Saturday after ANP candidate was shot dead by unidentified gunmen.
The polling will begin at 8am and continue till 5pm.
The official results will be announced by December 24. However, you can expect the results for 65 mayor/tehsil Chairman seats and for several councils seats.
Mayors/Tehsil Chairmen will be elected by direct vote and this has made the contest interesting.
Political parties have fielded candidates for almost all seats. At least 17 candidates compete for the mayorship of Peshawar.
The local bodies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are being restored on the orders of the Supreme Court after a delay of two years. All the political parties had been waiting for this for a long period.
Most voters in the 17 KP districts will cast six ballot papers to elect 8 representatives.
- A Mayor in divisional headquarters or a Tehsil Chairman in others areas. In total 65 of them will be elected today.
- Three general councillors, of which the one with the highest votes will become the head of Village Council (VC) in rural areas or Neighbourhood Council (NC) in urban areas. He/she will also be a member of the Tehsil/City Council. The election is being held for 2382 NCs/VCs and in total over 7,000 general councillors will be elected.
- Four other councillors, one each on labour/peasant, woman, youth, and minorities seat. Not every VC/NC will be electing candidates on all of these four seats.
A total of 19,285 candidates are contesting for general seats, 7,428 candidates will be competing on seats reserved for labour/peasant, 3,870 on women seats and 6,000 on seats reserved for youth.
The election commission has announced that 2,032 candidates on the village council level have been elected unopposed. This includes 217 general councillors, 900 women councillors, 285 farmer councillors, 500 youth councillors and 154 minority councillors.
The number of voters in 18 district councils is 10.26 million, out of which 7.01 million are men while 5.65 million are women.
The remaining 18 districts will go to the polls in the second phase on January 16.
Read more: KP’s new LG system, its structure, powers, and voting process.
Heated elections
A total of 9,230 polling stations have been established in 17 districts, but at least 4,128 have been declared sensitives.
People are excited about the election. SAMAA TV reported that Bannu was already in a festive mood on Saturday.
And the rigging allegations surfaced before the polling started. On Saturday night, Pakistan Peoples Party, Jamiat-e-Uleman Islam and other opposition parties raided a polling station where they allegedly found a presiding officer and some others stamping the ballot papers.
The presiding officer Tehseen and her husband were arrested. The Election Commission has announced that new polling staff with new material will be deputed for NC 33 and NC 34.
VCs/NCs
The new local government system has done away with district councils. The two-tier system has Tehsil Councils for most of the areas. Their heads will be called Tehsil Chairmen. In divisional headquarters, Tehsil Councils will be headed by mayors and could be alternatively referred to as City Councils.
There will be village councils and neighbourhood councils at the lower level.
Here is the breakdown of the number of village councils and neighbourhood councils in each tehsil.
Peshawar
Tehsil Peshawar
Village councils: 216
Neighbourhood councils: 130
Total councils: 346
Nowshera
Tehsil Council Nowshera
Village councils: 52
Neighbourhood councils: 12
Total councils: 62
Tehsil Council Pabbi
Village councils: 49
Neighbourhood councils: 4
Total councils: 53
Tehsil Council Jehangaria
Village councils: 29
Neighbourhood councils: 9
Total councils: 38
Kohat
Tehsil Council Kohat
Village councils: 57
Neighbourhood councils: 16
Total councils: 73
Tehsil Council Lachi
Village councils: 14
Neighbourhood councils: 4
Total councils: 18
Dera Ismail Khan
Tehsil Council Dera Ismail Khan
Village councils: 43
Neighbourhood councils: 22
Total councils: 65
Tehsil Council Paharpur
Village councils: 41
Neighbourhood councils: 4
Total councils: 45
Tehsil Council Kulachi
Village councils: 11
Neighbourhood councils: 6
Total councils: 17
Tehsil Council Daraban (Kala)
Village councils: 16
Neighbourhood councils: 2
Total councils: 18
Tehsil Council Parwah
Village councils: 28
Neighbourhood councils: 1
Total councils: 29
Lakki Marwat
Tehsil Council Lakki Marwat
Village councils: 69
Neighbourhood councils: 04
Total councils: 73
Tehsil Council Serai Naurang
Village councils: 20
Neighbourhood councils: 03
Total councils: 23
Malakand
Tehsil Council Malakand
Village councils: 67
Neighbourhood councils: 15
Total councils: 82
Bajaur
Tehsil Council Bajaur
Village councils: 120
Neighbourhood councils: 7
Total councils: 127
Mardan
Tehsil Council Mardan
Village councils: 103
Neighbourhood councils: 39
Total councils: 142
Tehsil Council Katlang
Village councils: 26
Neighbourhood councils: 8
Total councils: 34
Tehsil Council Takht-e-Bhai
Village councils: 49
Neighbourhood councils: 6
Total councils: 55
Swabi
Tehsil Council Lahore
Village councils: 25
Neighbourhood councils: 4
Total councils: 29
Tehsil Council Razzar
Village councils: 56
Neighbourhood councils: 2
Total councils: 58
Tehsil Council Swabi
Village councils: 26
Neighbourhood councils: 15
Total councils: 42
Tehsil Council Topi
Village councils: 26
Neighbourhood councils: 6
Total councils: 32
Karak
Tehsil Council Takht-e-Nasrati
Village councils: 21
Neighbourhood councils: 0
Total councils: 21
Tehsil Council Banda Daud Shah
Village councils: 14
Neighbourhood councils: 0
Total councils: 14
Tehsil Council Karak
Village councils: 22
Neighbourhood councils: 4
Total councils: 26
Bannu
Tehsil Council Bannu
Village councils: 90
Neighbourhood councils: 5
Total councils: 95
Tehsil Council Domet
Village councils: 15
Neighbourhood councils: 0
Total councils: 15
Tank
Tehsil Council Tank
Village councils: 67
Neighbourhood councils: 11
Total councils: 78
Haripur
Tehsil Council Haripur
Village councils: 131
Neighbourhood councils: 20
Total councils: 151
Tehsil Council Ghazi
Village councils: 24
Neighbourhood councils: 5
Total councils: 29
Khyber
Tehsil Council Khyber
Village councils: 130
Neighbourhood councils: 17
Total councils: 147
Charsadda
Tehsil Council Charsadda
Village councils: 64
Neighbourhood councils: 11
Total councils: 75
Tehsil Council Shabqadar
Village councils: 29
Neighbourhood councils: 06
Total councils: 35
Tehsil Council Tangi
Village councils: 33
Neighbourhood councils: 3
Total councils: 36
Hangu
Tehsil Council Hangu
Village councils: 29
Neighbourhood councils: 07
Total councils: 36
Tehsil Council Thal
Village councils: 21
Neighbourhood councils: 05
Total councils: 26
Mohmand
Tehsil Council Mohmand
Village councils: 58
Neighbourhood councils: 7
Total councils: 65
from SAMAA https://ift.tt/3e803WW
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