The counting of votes in local government elections across 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was underway after the close of polling time at 5pm, on a day that saw several incidents of violence break out.
Polling in the 17 districts, including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshehra, Mardan, and Peshawar, marked the first phase of the local body polls, with the next phase to take place at a later date.
Strict security arrangements were made, with a total of 79,479 police and other law enforcement agencies’ personnel deployed in the districts where balloting took place. Even then, law and order was broken and a violence-marred beginning to the local government elections in the province was witnessed. Over 12.668 million registered voters, including 7,015,757 male and 5,653,095 female voters, decided the fate of 37,752 candidates contesting for different seats. According to first unofficial result, Awami National Party candidate Ghulam Haqqani has been declared winner in Razar Tehsil of Swabi.
The ANP candidate secured 22,743 votes while PTI candidate Buland Iqbal could bag 13,023 votes. JUI-F candidate Maulana Momin Shah remained on third position with 2,283 votes. In Bannu, independent candidate Pir Kamal Shah has been declared winner on tehsil chairman Miryan’s seat with 11,885 votes.
PTI candidate Shahidullah Khan remained on second position with 6,370 votes. JUI-F candidate could se-cure 865 votes only. Over 2000 contestants have been elected unopposed in the local bodies elections that are being held to-day (Sunday) in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
217 candidates on general seats, 876 on women seats and 285 on farmers seat were elected unopposed while candidates on 500 youth and 154 minority seats were declared successful.
