Gearing up: Electioneering in full swing in Rawalpindi

Polling postponed in 16 UCs; 958 candidates for councillor are in the running

RAWALPINDI: Campaigning for the December 5 local government elections in Rawalpindi has entered the home stretch. 

A total of 583 candidates are in the fray for 158 union councils (UCs) of the district council and municipal corporations of Rawalpindi and Murree.

Meanwhile, elections in 16 UCs have been postponed.

According to the district election commission, there are 382 contenders for chairpersonship of the 110 UCs in Rawalpindi district, while there are 190 candidates for the same job in 45 UCs of Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC), and 11 candidates for the three equivalent slots in Murree Municipal Corporation (MMC). The district council consists of rural parts of the district.

No UC chairman has been elected unopposed in the district.

In total, 188 candidates for chairmen have withdrawn their candidature. Of them, 130 withdrew from the district council, 47 from RMC, and 11 from MMC.



As many as 46 candidates have been elected unopposed from the 2,965 candidates for councillors in the district council, RMC and MMC.

There are 1,926 candidates for councillors in the district council, of which 37 have been elected unopposed. A total of 958 candidates for councillor are in the running in RMC, and 81 in MMC. Nine have been elected unopposed in RMS.

The district election commission has postponed elections in 10 UCs of the district council, five of MMC and one in RMC.

As for the municipal committees of five tehsils in the district, there are 274 candidates for ward councillors. Seven have been elected unopposed.

In the Kallar Syedan municipal committee, there are 58 candidates for councillors. Of them, three have been elected unopposed. There are 77 aspirants for councillors in Gujar Khan municipal committee, 67 in Taxila municipal committee, 25 in Kotli Sattian municipal committee, and 47 in Kahuta municipal committee.

A total of 2,283,060 registered voters will elect their representatives on December 5 in the third phase of local government elections in Punjab. The number of male voters is 1,228,463 and female voters are 1,054,597.

The district election commission has set up 1,791 polling stations. There are 449 polling stations each for male and female voters, while 883 are joint polling stations.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th,  2015.