Tariq Saeed Peshawar
Re-elections in the 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for local government concluded Sunday in an amicable manner and the counting process continued till the filing of this report.
The re-polling, it may be recalled, was scheduled on seats of City Mayor, Tehsil Chairman, Neighborhood and Village Council seats where the polling had stopped during the first phase of local body elections due to brawl and the deaths of candidates.
Though the Election Commission of Pakistan had announced that the voting for the second phase of KP LG polls will be held on March 31, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court suspended the Peshawar High Court’s verdict that postponed the second phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The polling began at 8am and continued until 5pm without any break amid foolproof Security arrangements made for the maintenance of law and order.
The 13 districts where the polling was held on Sunday included Charsadda, Nowshera, Khyber, Mohmand, Mardan, Kohat, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Buner, Bajaur and Peshawar.
DI Khan Mayor post is being rated as the most important one where there is tough contest ex-pected with candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Umar Amin Gandapur was leading with more than 12000 votes according to unofficial results of the 40 polling stations followed by Kafil Nizami of JUI Fazal with 8900 votes. Former Deputy Speaker of the National assembly Faisal Karim Kundi of Pakistan People’s Party is also in the run for the Mayor D I Khan post. The other two hotly contested Tehsils are Baka Khel in Bannu, and Darra Adamkhel.
The returning officers had issued public no-tices regarding poll date for the second phase of local bodies elections in seven districts each of Malakand and Hazara divisions and four tribal districts.
