Bilawal congratulates PPP candidates on ‘outstanding performance’ in Sindh LG polls
Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto addresses a mass gathering in Larkana, organised on the occasion of the 69th birth anniversary of slain PPP chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. SCREENGRAB
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has congratulated his party candidates and supporters on “outstanding performance” in the first phase of local bodies elections in Sindh.
In a tweet from his official handle on Monday, the foreign minister said people chose a peaceful, prosperous and progressive Sindh by rejecting politics of hate and division.
“[People] rejected politics based on religion or ethnicity. They chose Jinnah’s,” he wrote on the social networking website.
The candidates of the PPP trailed ahead of their opponents in the violence-plagued first phase of local bodies elections in Sindh, unconfirmed and unofficial election results indicated on Sunday.
The people in the province went to the by-polls in 14 districts of four divisions with more than 11 million voters choosing their representatives for the municipal system of their towns and villages after more than six years.
As many as 21,298 candidates landed in the electoral fray for 6,277 seats of 101 town committees, 23 municipal committees, 14 district councils, four municipal corporations, 11 town municipal corporations and 887 union councils and union committees.
Also read: PPP trails ahead in Sindh’s violence-plagued LG polls
The complaints of missing ballot papers, change of the election symbols and belated start of the polling were reported from many districts.
Voting which began at 9am concluded at 5pm while as many as 946 candidates were elected unopposed. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extended the timing at polling stations where the voting process was suspended during the originally designated hours.
The polling, as had been anticipated earlier, remained marred by disorder as Sukkur, Sanghar and Tharpakar emerged as the flashpoints of violence, leaving two persons killed and more than a hundred injured.
The unofficial results put the PPP in winning positions in the municipal committees Mithi, Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Ghotki. The candidates of the ruling party in Sindh also secured majority seats in the town committees Kashmore, Khairpur, Khipro, Daur, Madeji and Thull.