PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has finalised it arrangements to hold local bodies’ elections in the province tomorrow.
A strong and multi pronged contest is expected in various districts as it would be a test of the PTI-JI coalition government popularity in the province on the one hand while on the other PML-N, ANP and JUI(F) are endeavouring to grab maximum number of seats to prove that the party which had promised to bring change has failed in its commitment and voters have rejected it.
According to election commission authorities, there are over 84,420 candidates in the fray for 41762 seats. Around 11,000 polling stations have been set up across the province where More than 13 million registered voters – 7,494,000 male and 5,638,000 female – will cast their votes.
Across the province, 503 neighbourhood and 2836 village councis have been established. Though there are 3339 seats for the minorities in the province but in many areas there are no minorities and only 349 candidates have filed their nomination papers.
For the election process, KPK Ministry of Education has announced holiday on May 29 and 30 in education institutions.
Following reports that women would be stopped from casting their votes in the LB elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan has directed the KPK Government/DROs to monitor the scenario closely and eradicate any such move in shape of written or verbal agreement, speeches, announcements or any other such instigation which could create the sense of deprivation, discouraging women from their fundamental right of franchise.
The Election Commission has made it clear that preventing women from casting their votes would be considered as a crime. In many areas of KPK, women are barred from going to polling stations to exercise their right to franchise.
The authorities have made strict security arrangements to ensure free, fair and secure conduct of polls.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IGP Nasir Khan Durrani has constituted seven vigilance teams of high ranking police officers for the security of the local bodies election process tomorrow in the province.
An official communiqué said that the vigilance teams would visit the districts to review the arrangements for the elections. It said that the vigilance teams in light of the visits would also suggest improvement in security steps in consultation with respective regional police officers (RPOs) and district police officers (DPOs).
INP