PTI maintains winning trend in LG polls

PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf maintained its winning trend in the provincial metropolis and some other districts and other parties were leading in their respective strongholds in the not-so-peaceful historic polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday.
The polling started at 8am and continued till 5pm and even later in many areas, as those present in the polling stations had been allowed to cast ballots after the given time. The counting was still going on till filing of this report.
Great enthusiasm was seen at the polling stations. In many stations, the workers of different parties turned violent and clashed with each others. Seven people were killed and scores of others injured in separate acts of violence in different districts. Unprecedented mismanagement was also seen during the polls and subsequent counting process.
In the 93 union councils of the provincial metropolis, according to unofficial results, PTI was leading on most of the seats for the district and town councils.
Candidates of the three-party alliance of Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were also leading at a number of union councils.
The Jamaat-i-Islami was also very much in the run, though behind its competitors.
The PTI claimed victory at wards 1 to 9 of the provincial metropolis on both the district and tehsil seats.
At the ward-9, the PTI candidate Syed Qasim Ali Shah, who is the party’s possible nominee for district chairmanship, emerged victorious.
At ward-10 to the PTI candidates Zarin and Kishwar Zaman were also elected as district and tehsil councilors, respectively.
At union council Kaneeza, JI candidates Mohammad Fayyaz and Fazlullah Daudzai won the district and tehsil seats.
Safdar Baghi of ANP won the district seat at union council Nauthia.
Zubair Ali of JUI-F won the district council seat. Khalid Waqas Chamkani of JI emerged victorious on union council-65.
In Mardan, ANP was leading on most of the seats. The PTI was closely following it, while the JI-PPP coalition in the district was also showing its strength on some seats. At ward-4, Haji Ataullah and at ward-14 Malik Ilyas of ANP won the district seats.
In Nowshera, the brother and nephew of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak – Liaqat Khattat and his son Akhtar Khattak - emerged victorious on district and tehsil seats from union council Manki Sharif on the PTI tickets.
At Khweshgi Bala PTI candidate Faheemud Din won the district and Hassan Jan of the same party won the tehsil seat.
Niaz Ali of ANP won the district seat at union council Akora Khattak and independent candidate Mohammad Ayub got the tehsil seat from the same union council.
Mohammad Ayaz Khan of ANP won the Khweshgi Payan district seats, while Zar Alam of PTI grabbed the tehsil seat from the area.
At union council Nawan Killey PTI candidate Nosher Khan won the district seat and Fawad Khan of the same party won the tehsil council seat.
In Swabi, PTI and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) was suffering upsets. The ANP was giving a tough time to the ruling parties’ candidates.
In Dir Upper, the JI was showing landslide victory. The party candidates at 10 union councils had registered victory according to unofficial results till filing of this report.
JI was also leading in Dir Lower and Buner districts.
In Bannu, the ANP, PPP supported JUI-F candidates were ahead of the rival PTI.
Malik Hashmat Ali Khan of JUI-F won the district council seat and Hukamzad Khan tehsil seat from the union council city-1.
Irfan Durrani and Sainan Durrani of JUI-F grabbed district and tehsil council seats from union council Hasni.
Malik Shakeel Khan of the same party won the district council seat from union council Bazar Ahmad Khan.
Pir Munir Shah, independent won district seat from union council Norar. At union council Kosar Fatehkhel, Walyaz Advocate of the three-party alliance emerged victorious, while at union council Koti Sadat PTI’s candidate Haji Waheed Khan won the district seat.
In Abbotabad: Sardar Sher Bahadur, an independent, won the district council seat from union council Kehal.
Waseem Jadoon another independent candidate, was leading. Nadeem Mughal of PML-N was leading at another seat for the district council.
In Lakki Marwat: the counting on most of the polling stations was postponed till Sunday owing to some untoward incidents during balloting process across the district.
In Malakand, the PTI candidates were suffering defeats at the hands of independents, ANP and JUI candidates. The JI also secured victory on one district council seat there.
In Chitral, JUI-F grabbed one seat in the district council.
Violence & mismanagement
At least seven people were killed in Charsadda and scores of others injured in various districts of the province in polls-related incidents of violence. More incidents of violence were reported after the polling was concluded and counting started.
Thirty people were reported injured in Peshawar, several others in Charsadda, Kohat, Haripur and Nowshera. In some areas ballot boxes were put on fire.
Enough security arrangements had not been made at the polling stations. Only one or two police cops had been deployed at each polling station and it was beyond their capacity to control the charged political workers of different parties.
Not seen at the polling places and other road, the army was, however, put on high alert, which would reach the spot on the complaint of presiding officers and returning officers to bring the situation under control.
Massive mismanagement was also reported in the polls across the province. “It was a total mess. I have never seen such disarray in elections before. At some places the polling started late and at others the election material was not available,” said Abdul Shakoor, a resident.
The polling staff was not properly trained and the voters, especially those not literate faced severe problems in casting the seven ballots in one go. There was a total confusion that led to rejection of unprecedented number of ballots, especially at the women polling stations. Some staff members at different polling stations were unable even to search voters’ names in the lists and write the identity card numbers.
Also, there was a dearth of staff and stuff and there were unprecedentedly huge number of polling stations and polling booths.
The provincial government was blaming the election commission for the mess. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that the government had nothing to do with the elections. He said that the election commission should have made better planning and arrangements for the election of such huge number of candidates. He said that they could have done it in phases if not possible on a single day.
The chief minister claimed that the police and administration was at their disposal and it was not possible for the limited number of police force in the province to provide security to thousands of polling stations. The election commission should have called army for security, he said.
He said that he, too, received reports of mismanagement from different parts of the province, but he could do nothing about that. He said it was the responsibility of the election commission to take notice of irregularities, if committed somewhere.
It is, however, a fact that the entire process was conducted by the district administration that comes under the direct control of the provincial government.
The deputy commissioner of each district served as district returning officer and other staff of the administration were returning officers, while teaching staff had been assigned the duties of presiding officers and polling officers.