ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to delay the second phase of local government (LG) polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) until March due to ongoing harsh weather conditions in the province.
The ECP officials said the commission decided this in view of extremely chilling weather in most of the districts of the province.
The second phase of LG polls will be initiated in remaining 18 districts of the province, including Hazara and Malakand. The commission is expected to announce this decision shortly.
Earlier, reports said the second phase of LG polls will be held on Jan 16 and the departments concerned were issued directives to make arrangements in this regard.
The first phase of LG polls was held in the KP province on Dec 19. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) suffered a major setback as its arch-rival JUI-F managed to grab the highest number of seats in the city, tehsil councils, village and neighbourhood councils.
JUI-F’s Zubair Ali also won the hotly-contested poll for the top slot of Peshawar mayor. He bagged 62,388 votes followed by Rizwan Bangash of PTI with 50,659 votes.
