PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has conceded its defeat in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) local government elections, held in 17 districts of the province on 19 December.
Talking with media, Minister for Culture and Labour, Shaukat Yousafzai attributed the defeat to inflation and hoped the it will decline in the next few months. Yousafzai added that the opposition have always leveled “baseless” allegations of election rigging but after securing majority, their concerns would have been addressed.
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The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for science and technology Muhammad Atif Khan also said that the major reason behind the PTI bad performance in election is price-hike and hoped it would be brought under control soon.
After a gap of six years, the first phase of local government elections was held on Sunday in 17 district of the province that also saw a spate of violence and attacks, killing five people and several other were injured. The ANP workers vehicle was also targeted in Bajaur with a suicide attack in which two political workers were killed while several other were injured.
According to unofficial results of the initial phase of mayor / chairman, the JUI-F candidates are ahead of their rivals in 63 tehsil councils, while the PTI suffered setbacks in some parts of the province, where the Awami National Party (ANP) ( The ANP and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) seem to be regaining their power.
According to the preliminary unofficial results of Peshawar, JUI-F candidates are leading in 3 out of 7 councils, while PTI and ANP are leading in two, two tehsils.
Earlier, this month Federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will change its strategy for the upcoming elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) after it failed to secure majority tehsil mayor seats in local government elections in 17 districts of the province.
Talking to media in Peshawar on Monday, Shibli Faraz said that the performance of the party in the local government elections was not bad. “JUI-F has been successful in some places where the PTI could not mobilize its political workers,” the minister said while talking to media.