Know your constituency: Lowest number of candidates contesting from district by the sea

Also has the second lowest number of voters in entire city

KARACHI:

District South, the district by the sea, is going to vote for its local government representatives on December 5 with the lowest number of candidates and the second lowest number of voters.

According to the data provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the total number of voters in District South is 805,683, with 457,928 males and 347,755 females. Spread over parts of Clifton, Saddar, Lyari and Keamari, the district is home to 31 union committees (UCs).

Only 617 candidates are contesting for the seats of general councillor, chairperson and vice-chairperson. Even the number of nomination papers received from this district was only 834. Of these, 111 were rejected and 723 were finalised as valid, nominated candidates. However, some of the candidates withdrew from the contest while nine of them won unopposed. Hence, the December 5 election day will see a contest between 617 candidates belonging to various political parties.



The finalised candidates will be contesting for 31 posts of chairpersons and 31 posts of vice-chairpersons, while 124 seats are for general members.

The nine candidates who have won unopposed on the general members’ seats belong to five UCs - 2, 8, 13, 14, 16 and 19. Four of these candidates are from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), one from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), one from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and one independent candidate.



Female representation

A total of 28 women are contesting for the seats of chairperson, vice-chairperson and on general members’ seats in District South. On the general members’ seats, 16 women are contesting the polls. These women are representing the MQM, JI, PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz and one of them is contesting independently.

Of the 12 women seeking to head the UCs, four are contesting for the post of chairpersons while eight are eyeing the post of vice-chairpersons. For the post of chairperson, MQM has put forward two women, JI has fielded one while the remaining one is an independent contender. For the post of vice-chairperson, five women from the MQM have stood up against one PPP woman, one JI woman and an independent candidate.



Election day

The district election authorities have set up 382 polling stations, which are divided among seven returning officers. These polling stations are for both men and women, District South election commissioner Waseem Ahmed Jaffri told The Express Tribune.

The data that he shared showed that District South will have 1,409 polling booths, 710 for men and 699 for women.

On the day of the election, a total of 1,409 assistant presiding officers will be helping the 382 presiding officers along with 1,409 polling officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2015.