With 3 days left, electioneering reaches its zenith in KP

PESHAWAR: With only three days left in the much-awaited local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the electioneering across the province has touched its peaks as the election campaign would come to an end by Wednesday-Thursday night.
The unusual alliances and the idea hold the polls at the grassroots level have made it difficult for both the voters and candidates to take a clear line. Also, it has been an uphill task for the political parties including the ones famous for their exemplary discipline to persuade their workers at the local level to strictly follow the party decisions.
Broadly, the three parties in the ruling coalition in the province - Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) - and the major opposition parties - Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People’s Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have formed two rival alliances to contest the local government elections.
The ruling parties are, however, not that united like the opposition ones. The PTI in particular is facing indiscipline at the local level. It has taken a solo-flight in majority of the districts and at the lower level. Not so different is the situation with the JI, which too is all alone on many seats in several districts. The AJIP based in Swabi has entered into an alliance with its leading coalition partners in the provincial government. But there too mistrust has developed among them.
Some very strange adjustments in some districts and at the lower level could also be seen. The ANP and JUI-F have remained arch rivals in the past, but they are contesting the polls from a joint platform in several districts, especially in Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera and Swabi.
There is a common perception that if voters of both these parties remained sincere with each other, they would be able to get remarkable victory in the polls, especially in the central districts of Peshawar valley. In some districts, the PTI entered into adjustments at lower level with JUI-F and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and despite some harsh statements and directives of both the parties’ leadership to their local leadership the seat-to-seat arrangements between these rival political groups is intact.
In some areas of Buner, PTI has made adjustments with JUI-F and in Hazara division with PML-N. It is a glaring example of the height of hypocrisy, though leadership of all these parties has denied such alliances. The workers of different parties are questioning the sincerity of their allies. In some cases, the parties have got allied with one party and the candidates at the local level have made their own arrangements.
Even in Peshawar, the ANP, JUI-F and PPP are allies and have evenly distributed seats at all the tiers - district, tehsil/town and village/neighborhood councils - but in several union councils the arch-rivals ANP and JI, are supporting each other’s candidates . Similarly, on scores of seats party members have joined the field in independent capacity against the candidates of their coalition partners and their party workers are supporting them. “This is the height of hypocrisy. I have never seen such a hypocritical attitude on the part of everyone - parties, candidates and voters - throughout my life,” said Mohammad Yaseen, a candidate for the district council Peshawar.
In Mardan, the PPP and JI, always adversaries, have joined hands, putting their workers in a strange situation.
The Election Commission in a statement on Tuesday said that campaign would end on the night between May 28 and 29. A total of 84,420 candidates are contesting for the 41,762 seats for the district, town/tehsil and village neighborhood councils. Some 13.357 million voters would use their right to vote at 11,262 polling stations set up across the province, the statement said. It added that the polling would start at 8 am and continue till 5 pm without any break.