Hyderabad set for local govt elections on Jan 15

HYDRABAD:

The local government elections in Hyderabad, scheduled for January 15, will be held on 128 seats of chairmen and vice chairmen and 491 seats of general members, wards. The Pakistan Peoples Party is already leading with unopposed win on 26 seats of chairmen and vice chairmen.

As per the statistics, shared by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Friday, 27 candidates have returned unopposed from union committees and 140 from the wards of the UCs.

The Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) consists of nine town committees having a total of 160 UCs with four wards in each UC. The candidates of chairmen and vice chairmen from 27 UCs, including a panel of independent candidates, have won without contest.

Likewise, 124 ward councilors from PPP, five from Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, four from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, one each from Qaumi Awami Tehreek and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan besides eight independents have emerged victorious uncontested.

The polling on five seats of chairmen and vice chairmen and six of general ward members has been postponed because of the deaths of contesting candidates. Another three seats of general ward members are vacant with no contestant.

The PPP after securing 26 seats of chairmen and vice chairmen now requires only 55 more seats to elect its mayor of HMC with a simple majority. Whereas, the MQM-P, which is considered to be among the top two contender parties in Hyderabad, requires 81 seats. However, the party has fielded candidates on slightly over half the number of the total seats.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2023.