PESHAWAR: It was expected that more than one lac candidates will submit nomination papers for Local Government elections in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said that 42176 nominations have been submitted for the village and neighborhood council polls.
Experts believe that after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) judgment that the election will be held on party bases and the PTI challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, people believe that it would be impossible for ECP to hold election as per the schedule. Moreover, due to the inflation, unemployment and economic crisis, the people are less interested in the election process.
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The ECP had fixed 1 to 10 November for submission of nominations papers. The details show that for 66 tehsils’ chairmanship, a total of 1005 candidates are in the field in the 17 districts of the province. For 2382 village councils, a total of 41171 candidates have submitted their nomination papers. The ECP has started scrutiny of nomination papers and from next week, candidates will also be in position to appeal against the returning officers decisions.
After the court directed to hold the election on party bases, the Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema Islam and Jamaat-e-Islami has issued tickets to their candidates. Other major parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and parties have not yet issued party tickets.
The high court judgment was so sudden that there was no time with the political parties to select suitable candidates for the elections on the ground level. Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has also challenged the high court judgment in the Supreme Court. The political activists said that the PTI wants election on non-party bases as they will be in a position to lure the wining candidates by offering government funds to form local government. The activists said that the situation would favour the PTI as they have the government funds and can easily influence the wining candidates.
Meanwhile, the PTI has not accepted the court decision and decided that its candidate will contest election as independent candidates.
The ECP said that a huge number of women candidates are also participating in the election process and total of 4214 women candidates have submitted their nomination papers. Similarly, 8023 candidates have submitted papers for Kisan seat in village and neighbouring council and for youth seats 6745 nominations have been submitted. The second phase of the local government election in the province would be held on 16 January 2022.