KARACHI: After much delay and uncertainty surrounding the second phase of local government polls in Sindh, polling has kicked off in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions with over 3.4 million people exercising their right to vote to elect their local governments.
The polling began at 8am and will go on till 5pm. It is taking place in seven districts of Karachi and nine districts of the Hyderabad division.
The road to the local government elections proved to be bumpy as it took three postponements, litigation and political fights before the polls could finally be held.
Interestingly, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) — one of the most popular parties in the two cities — announced a boycott of the elections late Saturday night.
The party’s decision came after the failure of day-long consultations — over the demand for fresh delimitation — with the provincial government.
Keeping in view MQM-P’s demand, the Sindh government for the second time tried to defer the polls via a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) earlier on Saturday.
However, the electoral body didn’t budge from the Sindh government’s letter to request deferral and decided to hold the polls as per schedule.
MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool alongside the party’s senior leadership said that the local body elections have already been rigged. ” Accordingly, we refuse to recognise the polls,” he said.
During today’s elections, the assistant presiding officer will issue two ballot papers — green and blue — for the chairman and vice chairman union council and general members ward union council.
The polling is being held in 246 union committees in seven districts of Karachi (Central, West, East, South, Korangi, Keamari and Malir).
About 2,551 candidates are contesting the polls in Hyderabad, 1,436 in Dadu, 839 in Jamshoro, 781 in Tando Allahyar, 715 in Matiari and 452 candidates in Tando Muhammad Khan.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) spokesperson, about 8,706 polling stations have been set up for the local body polls with 1,204 for males and 1,170 for females.
As per the spokesperson, 389 are improvised polling stations.
There were reports of polling being delayed in certain areas due to one reason or another.
Reacting to the delay, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar claimed that the election staff has not reached some of the polling stations.
He alleged that efforts are being made to spoil the polls.
More than 43,605 law enforcement officials and personnel are performing their duties under the security plan devised by the Sindh government.
According to the spokesperson of the province’s police, 26,050 officers and personnel have been deployed on election duty at 4,997 polling stations in the city.
Apart from the law enforcement agency, the spokesperson informed that 200 Frontier Constabulary and 500 rangers personnel have also been deployed for election duty.
Read more: FC deployment ordered to protect Sindh polling stations during LG elections
