PESHAWAR – Voting is underway for the first phase of the local body election in 17 districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Polling started at 8 am and will continue till 5 pm without any break. Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Khyber, Mohmand, Mardan, Swabi, Kohat, Karak, Hangu, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Haripur, Buner, and Bajaur are 17 districts in the northwestern region where polling is underway.
Polling for DI Khan mayor city council was deferred after ANP candidate Mohammad Umar Khitab was assassinated in an attack on Saturday.
Meanwhile, strict security arrangements have been made in the districts where the ballot is taking place. Around 80,000 police and other law enforcement agencies personnel have been deployed. Only 11,000 security personnel have been deployed in the provincial capital Peshawar alone.
Reports quoting the Election Commission of Pakistan officials, said around 12.66 million voters are registered across the 17 districts, with 7.01 million male voters and 5.6 million female voters.
More than 9,000 polling stations and 28,892 polling booths have been set up for today’s elections. At least 2,507 polling stations have been declared most sensitive while 4,188 are sensitive.
An official said that in addition to the police, Frontier Constabulary personnel would be deployed in over 200 most sensitive polling stations in the provincial capital. Deployment to all the polling stations has been completed.
IGP Police also chaired a meeting in wake of the security arrangements for the polls and directed the officers to ensure foolproof security. Forces have been directed not to allow brandishing of weapons, aerial firing, or creating any law and order.
Meanwhile, the cops from the former tribal areas have also been deployed in different districts of the province for election security duty for the first time.
There are 676 candidates contesting elections for 65 seats of the city mayor and tehsil chairman. Interestingly, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf is the only party that has fielded candidates for all the 65 seats and no party has been able to field 65 candidates.
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Meanwhile, JUI-F has fielded 59 candidates, ANP is in the third position with 55 candidates, while PML-N’s 51 candidates will contest elections and 47 candidates of Jamaat-e-Islami will contest polls, while PPP’s 43, 14 candidates of Qaumi Wattan Party (QWP) and 305 independent candidates also eyed victory.
Local government polls in 35 districts will be held in two phases. Voting is being held today in 17 districts.
