KARACHI: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja has said that the establishment of local bodies in Karachi and Hyderabad is indispensable for democracy.
The Chief Election Commissioner in his message regarding the local government elections said that the people should express their confidence in democracy by being a part of the local government elections, and the law and order situation should be ensured in the local government elections.
He further said that any kind of interference in the election process will not be tolerated, evil elements will be dealt with strictly, law enforcement agencies will fulfill the trust during the election process.
The ‘much-awaited’ second phase of the Sindh local government elections is to be held in 16 districts including Karachi and Hyderabad on January 15.
The second phase of by-polls will be held in Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi South, Karachi West, Malir, Keamari and Korangi.
According to the data available with Dunya News, with over 10.15 million population of the seven districts of Karachi, more than 8 million will exercise their right to vote among which more than 0.3 million voters are females and over 0.46 million male will cast ballots.
A total of 5,017 polling stations would be set up in seven districts of Karachi out of which 1,502 polling stations have been declared sensitive.
Two candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) including Khurrum Sher Zaman from Karachi South Union Committee No. 11 Frere Town and Firdous Shamim Naqvi from Karachi East Union Committee No. 2 Solider Bazaar will be in the race for Karachi Mayor slot while Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will contesting election from Karachi Central Union Committee No. 8 Al-falah.
Read more: MQM-P boycotts ‘already rigged’ Karachi, Hyderabad LG polls
