Village and neighbourhood councils: 349 candidates to contest 3,339 minorities’ seats in K-P

Sarbdiyal says apathy of political parties has left non-Muslims in the shadows

PESHAWAR:

Local government elections in the province are going to be a tough competition across most categories – with candidates far outnumbering seats. Except on the seats reserved in villages and neighbourhoods for minorities, where a few hundred are contesting a few thousand seats. 

The documents available with The Express Tribune show a low turnout of non-Muslims contestants. There are 349 non-Muslim candidates contesting 3,339 reserved seats for minorities in neighbourhood and village councils.

According to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chapter of the Election Commission of Pakistan, over 85,000 candidates will stand for more than 41,762 seats in all councils across the province, but this scarcely includes minorities. These figures also do not include the reserved seats at the district or tehsil level.

Indifferent politicos

The reason behind low participation from non-Muslims is the indifference of political parties and lack of political awareness, All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement Chairman Haroon Sarbdiyal told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

He maintained there are over 180,000 non-Muslims in K-P: 125,000 Christians, 47,000 Hindus, 15,000 Sikhs and the remaining Kalashas and adherents of other faiths.

“Minorities are not well aware of their rights and stakeholders have done nothing to help their development,” said Sarbdiyal. “Even members of provincial and national assemblies from our community have not taken interest in helping minorities.” He argued when representatives of minorities in the legislature do not help their own kind, there is little reason for non-Muslims to see the benefit of contesting or voting.

All political parties, suggested Sarbdiyal, should join hands to educate non-Muslims on the rights that must be availed by them and help them through the challenges that they face in the country.

He criticised political parties for giving party tickets on the basis of nepotism and said a select few are elected time and again who only work to serve their own interest. Instead of giving charge to such people, Sarbdiyal said, “Political parties should field candidates who associate with the general public, people who are driven to work for everyone’s welfare.”

Division of seats

In addition to minorities’ seats, the documents show there are 5,480 candidates contesting 978 general seats in district council wards whereas 5,907 are competing for 978 general seats in tehsil council wards. In neighbourhood  and village councils, the 23,111 general seats will be contested by 39,079 candidates and 7,681 women will stand for 6,678 reserved seats.

Moreover, 3,339 peasant/workers seats will be contested by 15,700 candidates whereas 14,224 youth candidates will stand for over 3,339 seats.

ECP K-P Spokesperson Sohail Ahmed called the local government elections an opportunity for non-Muslims to come to the fore to work for their communities but said they seem to be not interested in politics.

However, he added, the responsibility of the ECP is to arrange polls hence after the elections on May 30 they will arrange another round of polls to fill the seats left vacant.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2015.