Who’s who: List of candidates released for G-B polls

289 people will be contesting for legislative assembly berth.


Our Correspondent May 20, 2015
"The parties are now complaining of errors [in the voters’ list] but remained silent when we gave them 21 days to report any such problems," G-B CEC Tahir Shah. PHOTO: AP

GILGIT: The Election Commission of Gilgit-Baltistan released a list of 289 candidates contesting polls for the region’s legislative assembly.

There are 14 political and religious parties fielding their hopefuls in 24 constituencies where polls are scheduled for June 8, in addition to independent candidates. “The candidates have been allotted symbols,” an official said.

The main parties in the running are Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, Tehreek-e-Islami Pakistan and Muttahida Qaumi Movement.



According to the EC list, the number of candidates from constituencies GBLA-I, II and III (Gilgit I, II, III) are 38, 24 and 11 respectively. Moreover 39 candidates are contesting from Hunza-Nagar district.

Health minister’s entry banned

A returning officer in Diamer district, Mushtaq Ahmed, has banned the entry of Caretaker Minister for Health Basharatullah till elections.

The ban comes in the wake of a written complaint filed by opposition parties, accusing the minister of running an election campaign for his uncle Janbaz Khan, said an official. The latter is contesting elections on a PML-N ticket.

“The minister was taking undue advantage of his position and we had no choice but to lodge a complaint against him,” said JUI-F candidate Dilbar Khan.

Voters list errors

Chief Election Commissioner Tahir Shah has said parties didn’t help the election commission fix errors in the voters list.

“The parties are now complaining of errors but remained silent when we gave them 21 days to report any such problems,” said Shah, while talking to journalists on Wednesday. He added new computerised lists have minimal errors as NADRA and EC staff had worked hard.

Shah said special measures had been taken to ensure people in snowy areas such as Gultari vote.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2015. 

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