Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidates contesting for mayoral, deputy mayoral, chairman, and vice chairman seats in local bodies elections emerged victorious across Sindh on Thursday, securing uncontested wins even in municipal corporations.
Reportedly, the PPP's candidates were elected unopposed in all five district-based municipal corporations, located in Sindh's divisional headquarters.
The mayors and deputy mayors were elected unopposed in three out of those five municipal corporations, including the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC), Sukkur Municipal Corporation (SMC), and Shaheed Benazirabad Municipal Corporation (SBMC).
The appointed mayors and deputy mayors are Kashif Ali Shoro and Saghir Qureshi for HMC, barrister Arsalan Shaikh and Dr Arashad Mughal for SMC, and Qazi Rasheed and Mubarashar Arain for SBMC.
In the Larkana Municipal Corporation (LMC), PPP's Anwar Ali Lohar and Muhammad Ameen Shaikh secured the seats of mayor and deputy mayor with 29 votes, while their opponents from the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Abdul Hafeez Samtio and Syed Imran Ali Shah, received only three votes.
Similarly, Abdul Rauf Ghori and Junaid Buland from PPP won 31 out of 34 votes in the Mirpurkhas Municipal Corporation (MMC).
The ruling party's candidates also won all the seats of chairmen and vice-chairmen in the district council, municipal committee, and five town committees in Tharparkar district.
However, the PPP faced a setback in the Chor Town Committee in Umerkot district, where one of its dissidents, Nazar Muhammad, contested as an independent candidate with the support of GDA and won the chairman's seat.
Meanwhile, in the Khanpur Town Committee in Shikarpur district, the chairman and vice chairman positions were won by Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen candidates.
Moreover, worker clashes marred the election process. The voting to elect the chairman of the HMC's Town Municipal Corporation (TMC) Paretabad was postponed after a clash between PPP and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers disrupted the polling.
The alleged clash took place at Noor Muhammad High School in the Hirabad area, where PTI workers claimed that PPP workers forcefully pushed them out of the polling station. Later, the workers from both parties engaged in physical altercations at the nearby Liberty Chowk.
Regional Election Commissioner Ali Abdullah Jan and District Election Commissioner Muhammad Yousuf Majeedano arrived at the polling site to review the situation. They urged any political party workers who had been attacked to submit a written complaint.
The voting process was stalled due to insufficient voter turnout, and a new schedule for the TMC Paretabad elections will be announced later.
In the local government elections held on January 15, PTI had won 13 out of 18 seats in TMC Paretabad and 15 out of 18 seats in TMC Shah Latifabad.
Despite internal competition, PTI easily won the chairman seat in TMC Shah Latifabad. However, alleged internal divisions within PTI and alleged pressure tactics employed by PPP are now threatening their victory in TMC Paretabad.
PTI Hyderabad Division President, Khawand Bux Jahejo, whose son is a candidate for chairman in TMC Paretabad, accused the ruling party and the police of rigging the electoral contest.
Meanwhile, PPP workers also staged a protest, accusing election officials of favouring PTI.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2023.
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