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Thursday March 28, 2024

KP kicks off efforts for all-time big LG vote

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has started efforts for what it terms as all-time big local government vote to elect 39,806 public representatives on May 30 at the grassroots level in 24 districts of the province.This was stated at a meeting of the stakeholders held in connection with the upcoming local

By Riaz Khan Daudzai
May 14, 2015
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has started efforts for what it terms as all-time big local government vote to elect 39,806 public representatives on May 30 at the grassroots level in 24 districts of the province.
This was stated at a meeting of the stakeholders held in connection with the upcoming local government elections in the province here on Wednesday.Chairing the meeting, secretary Local Government Jamil Ahmed said the upcoming local government (LG) elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would itself be a huge change.
“It will be harbinger of a new era of empowerment of the masses in the province,” he said. He added that the May 30 LG vote would bring about a bigger change than that of Musharraf’s LG system as it would devolve powers at the village level in real terms. Jamil Ahmed informed the meeting that a mass awareness programme had already been launched through various mediums to enable the voters to use their right to vote the way they want.
To further elaborate the local government system being introduced by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government in the province, he said it would be a different election as it would ensure practical empowerment of the masses.
Responding to an observation of one of the participants, the secretary local government said that party-less elections at the village and neighbourhood council level were planned so that the traditional and historic cultural integrity of the village could remain intact.
Jamil Ahmed said that in the context of Khyber Pakhtun-khwa, the local government system that would be formulated as a result of the local government elections would prove to be a vehicle to usher in an era of stabilisation and de-radicalisation in the province.
According to the data shared at the meeting, the electorate in 24 districts - as the recently bifurcated two districts of Kohistan are not going to vote in the LG polls — will elect 39,806 public representatives at the district, tehsil, neighbourhood and village council level. They will include 23,111 general councillors, 6,678 women and 3,339 each worker/peasant, youth and minority members.
The 24 districts which are going to vote have been divided into 70 tehsil councils, 2,835 village and 504 neighbourhood councils making the tally of these public bodies at 3,339. The tehsil-wise number of the wards in the district councils is 978 and consist of 1,484 elected representatives including 978 general councillors, 329 women members and 59 each of peasant/workers, youth and minority members.
Responding to the question regarding the reported ambiguity in the voting that many think may lead to confusion on the polling day, the secretary Local Government said that each village and neighbourhood council would comprise of 10 to 15 members including five to 10 (based on the ratio of population) general councillors, two women, one each worker, youth and minority member.
He said that every voter would cast seven votes of different colours. The voters would use white ballot paper for general seats, purple for women, light green for worker/peasant, yellow for youth, brown for minority seat, orange for district member and light grey ballot paper for tehsil and town members.