Parties, independents start campaign in Mardan for LG elections

MARDAN: Various political and religious parties and independent candidates have stepped up activities for the upcoming local government elections in 75 union councils, now called wards, of the district.About 3,162 members will be elected in Mardan district in the elections. There are 178 village councils and 53 neighbourhood councils in Mardan.
Mardan tehsil includes 46 wards, Takhtbhai tehsil has 17 wards and Katlang comprises of 12 wards. The district council would have 112 male and 25 female members, four peasants, four youth and four members from the minorities.
The Election Commission has decided to set up 954 polling stations, including 260 for males, 226 for females and 468 combined stations in Mardan district.
Every candidate will submit Rs1,000 fee for village council and Rs3,000 for district and tehsil seats along with their nomination papers. The opposition and ruling parties have started their activities to win seats in the coming polls.
Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have formed an alliance for contesting the local government elections.The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-i-Islam (JI), which are the ruling parties in KP, have started negotiations with ANP-Wali and Qaumi Watan Party to enter into an alliance in the district.
Several independent groups, including traders and dissidents from various political parties have also started making efforts to contest the elections.In the May 2013 general election, the PTI had won two National Assembly and five provincial assembly seats while the ANP won one National Assembly and two provincial assembly seats.
It is believed that dissident workers of ANP would support ANP-Wali group in the local government elections. Some say the ruling PTI also has not performed well so far in the district. However, a large number of the youth are supporting the PTI. The PPP that used to be a strong party in Mardan has lost ground. Observers expect tough contest between ANP and PTI in Mardan.