Phase-II of LG polls in Punjab, Sindh today

Polling in 76 local councils of eight Sindh districts postponed

SUKKUR/ ISLAMABAD/ HYDERABAD/ LAHORE/ KARACHI:

Amid last-minute intervention of the Supreme Court on delimitation issues causing confusion in Sindh, electorates in 12 districts of Punjab and 14 of Sindh would exercise their franchise to elect their local governments on Thursday (today).

The districts in Punjab that go to the polls today – the second phase of the three-phased elections – are Sargodha, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, Attock, Jhelum, Mianwali, Chiniot, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Sheikhupura and Khanewal.



Except for a few local councils in Attock, Khanewal, Chakwal, Gujrat and Lodhran – where polling was postponed mainly due to ballot paper printing issues – the election authorities are all set for what they expect to be a smooth polling in these districts.

Today’s polls hark back to the first phase held on October 31, when the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) went head to head against each other, but the latter failed to gain much ground.

The districts in Sindh that go to the polls today are Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allayar, Matiari, Dadu, Jamshoro, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroze, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar. Polling in the entire Sanghar district, however, has been postponed due to security reasons.



Delimitations

Last-minute intervention of the superior courts on delimitation issues has triggered confusion in Sindh, where polling in 76 local councils of eight districts was deferred hours before the LG election.

After getting permission from the Supreme Court, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob announced postponing polling in 53 union councils, 18 town committees and five municipal committees of Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroze, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro and Badin districts.

The decision was taken following the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) verdict against delimitations that the election authorities had finalised earlier this year. Cases challenging delimitations have remained pending in court for months.



Two days ago, the SHC had directed the ECP to revise delimitations in certain LG constituencies before the polling. The verdict said the rural areas of UCs were merged into urban UCs and vice versa, which needed to be ratified.

The SHC had given the ECP 24 hours, but the polling body approached the apex court seeking suspension of the high court’s verdict. The ECP also requested an extension for revising the delimitations, which the SC granted.

‘Pre-poll rigging’

Responding to postponement of polls, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah termed the ECP decision ‘pre-poll rigging’ and said the commission was appeasing the party contesting against Shah’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).



Addressing a joint news conference with senior minister Nisar Khuhro at the CM House, Shah said: “The delimitation process of union councils/committees was carried out by the election commission, which has now decided to redraw the limits of these councils a day before the poll. All arrangements have been finalised. How will the voters know if polling is taking place in their constituency?”

He said even he did not know where the elections are being held and where they are not. “This exercise is aimed at singling out the PPP in Badin and helping our opponents.”

Electoral statistics

In the 12 districts of Punjab going to the polls today, there are 14,685,822 registered voters, including 6,403,093 women. As many as 921 candidates have been elected unopposed on various chairman, vice-chairman and general councillor seats. Only 112 women and 222 non-Muslims are running for direct elections across these districts.



As many as 3,465 candidates have withdrawn their nominations, 8,660 candidates are running for chairman and vice-chairman and 19,228 candidates for general seats of district councils, municipal corporations, municipal committees and UCs.

Of the 9,011 constituencies, there are 1,102 UC seats. There are 6,612 wards in these UCs. There are 64 municipal committees and 1,297 wards in these committees.

The ECP has set up 11,906 polling stations and 35,200 polling booths and appointed 12 district returning officers to oversee 234 returning officers and 468 assistant returning officers. As many as 11,906 presiding officers, 70,400 assistant presiding officers and 35,200 polling officers will be on duty on election day.



The home secretary has announced that 579 polling stations have been declared ‘most sensitive’ and more than 8,700 ‘sensitive’. He said 25 policemen would be deployed at every ‘most sensitive’ polling station, 13 at ‘sensitive’ and nine at the polling stations categorised as ‘normal’.

According to the directives issued by Punjab police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, 104,204 police officials will be on security duty.

According to the ECP secretary, six companies of the paramilitary Rangers and 40 of the Pakistan Army will act as rapid response force (RRF) in the province today.

About the situation in Sindh, the secretary said the ECP has ordered deploying Rangers outside 769 polling stations in the 14 districts going to the polls today.

In addition to 3,500 Rangers, 51,000 police officials will be performing election duties. A total of 16 army companies will remain on standby as RRF. Four of these army companies would be in Badin, where tension already prevails between different groups.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2015.