PTI Leads In KP Municipal Elections

PESHAWAR: Twenty-two of the governing Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidates are expected to win the positions of mayor and chairman of the city and tehsil councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s second round of local body elections.

Elections for mayor and chairman positions were held in 65 city and tehsil councils, as well as 1,830 village and neighbourhood councils, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

There were a total of 28,020 contestants in the race, of which 651 ran for mayor and tehsil council chair positions.

With 12,980 general seats, 2,668 for women, 6,451 designated for the farmers, 5,213 youth, and 57 for minority seats in the village and neighbourhood councils were all on the ballot.

Poll-related violence resulted in two deaths and many injuries, on the other hand.

Elections were conducted in 65 tehsil councils for the positions of chairman and mayors.

PTI seemed to be ahead on several seats based on early results from 50 tehsil councils that were available by late Thursday night. Only results from the remaining 15 councils could be gathered because of connectivity difficulties in these remote and hilly locations.

It is believed that the JUI-F and JI candidates were ahead in seven and six tehsils, respectively, according to unofficial results.

In five of the tehsil councils, independent candidates were in the lead, followed by three candidates from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), two from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and one each from the Awami National Party (ANP) and Tehreek-i-Islahat Pakistan.

Six PTI candidates were in the lead in seven tehsil councils in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the JUI-F was leading in one.

Abdullah Khan, the chief minister’s brother, had a commanding lead in the Matta Tehsil of their ancestral home.

With four of the six tehsil councils won by the PTI, the other two were won by the JI and PPP, respectively.

Jamaat-i-Islami seemed to be regaining lost momentum as four of its candidates were leading in seven tehsil councils following a loss in Lower Dir in the 2018 general elections.

It was PTI that was leading in Mansehra district, where it had won three of of five of its tehsil councils.

Contrarily, JUI-F, which had emerged as the largest party in the first round of local body elections by winning 23 out of the 66 tehsil councils, did not do well.

Three tehsil councils in Kurram were headed by its candidates, as were four others: Swat (the lowest), Lower Dir (the highest), Battagram (the lowest), and Torghar (the highest).

As of December 19, 2021, JUI-F had won 23 of the tehsil council seats in the first round of elections in 17 districts of the province, while PTI had only won 18.

The ANP had won seven seats on the tehsil council chair/mayor, but independent candidates gained 10 seats. Three seats were gained by the PML-N, two seats each by JI and Tehreek-i-Islahat Pakistan, and one seat by the PPP.

Meanwhile, at least two people died and several more were hurt during Thursday’s elections. Although the election was mostly calm, there were isolated reports of violence.

One person was killed and four others were injured in a skirmish at a women’s polling booth in Baghdara, Abbottabad district, while a conflict between two factions in Torghar district over the subject of voting claimed one life in the Dore Mera region.

The village of Galiyat’s Jandar Bari saw yet another round of violence, this time resulting in seven injuries.

Unknown gunmen seized poll workers and a police guard in the Shawal region of the militancy-ravaged South Waziristan district, and they also stole vote boxes. When polling was halted in Wana, individuals in Azam Warsak set fire to vote boxes in the Azam Warsak district.

Voting was completely absent from female voting stations in Swegalai, Kabal, and Jukhtai and Kasono tehsils, all in Swat’s Miandam tehsil.

Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Torghar, Kohistan Upper, Kohistan Lower, Kolai-Palas, Swat, Malakand, Shangla, Lower and Upper Dir, Upper and Lower Chitral, Kurram, Orakzai, and North and South Waziristan were among the places where voting took place.