Municipal govt polls: Around 18m to cast ballots in III phase

The ECP has set up two teams to address complaint recieved on the polling day

LAHORE: Around 18 million voters, including around 7.8 million women, registered in 12 districts of the province are scheduled to cast ballots in the third phase of local government elections on Saturday (today).

The 12 districts are Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Narowal, Khushab, Jhang, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rahim Yar Khan. Polling will take place for election of chairmen, vice chairmen and general counsillors in five municipal corporations, 12 district councils and 58 municipal committees. There are more than 5, 200 contestants for chairmen and vice chairman and 31,848 for general counsillor.

Women participation 

There are 26 women candidates for chairmen and vice chairmen and 90 for general councillor.

Minorities

Three non-Muslims are also contesting the election for the chairmen and vice chairmen seats. The number of non-Muslims contesting for the general member seats is 51.

Elected unopposed

The data compiled by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) states that 15 chairman and vice-chairman panels in the district councils and three in the municipal corporations have been elected unopposed. On general member seats, 520 candidates have been elected unopposed.

Election arrangements

The ECP has set up 14, 012 polling stations for the third phase. As many as 14, 012 presiding officers, 72, 628 assistant presiding officers and 38, 718 polling officers will perform duties at 38, 718 polling booths at these stations.

Security

Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera has stated that 118,792 police officers will perform security duties for the third phase.

Of these, 38, 800 will be deployed at polling stations and 16, 000 will patrol areas in the vicinity of polling stations. As many as 5,410 will be responsible for maintenance of law and order after the end of polling. Army and Rangers personnel will remain on standby.

Based on police’s assessment, 755 polling stations have been declared most sensitive and 2, 952 as sensitive.

The announcement was made at a meeting held to review security arrangements on Wednesday. The meeting was also told that strict enforcement of ban on display of weapons will be ensured. The district police have been asked to detain licensed weapons from the candidates.

Under the security plan approved by the provincial government, winning candidates have been barred from holding celebratory rallies.

Complaint Centres

The ECP has set up two four-member teams to address complaints received on the polling day. The teams will be stationed at Election Monitoring Cell and the Election Branch and will take complaints from 8am to 8pm.

Political parties

The three major political parties participating in the third phase election are the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Peoples Party. MNA Hamza Shahbaz and MPA Zaeem Qadri of the PML-N, MNA Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chaudhry Sarwar of the PTI and Qamaruz Zaman Kaira of the PPP have led their parties’ campaigns for the third phase election.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2015.