Tribal election

JUI-F woman candidate submits papers for reserved seat

By Bureau report

PESHAWAR: A woman candidate of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl Naeema Kishwar submitted her nomination papers with the provincial election commissioner for the four women reserved seats.

Today (Saturday) is the final day for submission of the nomination papers for the four women reserved seats and one minority seat from erstwhile Fata for the upcoming election for 16 seats of the merged districts.

An official of the provincial election commission said that about 40 women candidates including Shaheen Habibullah of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Chand Bibi of Pakistan People’s Party received nomination papers from the returning officer.

With the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s elections in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) for the 16 seats to be held on July 2, the provincial election commissioner has directed political parties to submit priority lists of their candidates for the four seats reserved for women and one for non-Muslims by May 11.

The provincial election commissioner, Pir Maqbool Ahmad, who is the returning officer for the reserved seats, issued a public notice inviting nomination papers from candidates for the women reserved seats.

He said only those registered as voters in the erstwhile Fata were eligible to file nomination papers against the reserved seats.

Under Section 57(3) of the Elections Act, returning officers of the 16 general seats also issued public notices on Tuesday.

Through public notices, the returning officers have published the election schedule in their respective constituencies in the seven tribal districts and six former Frontier Regions.

The general seats will be filled through direct election while the five reserved seats will be filled through the proportional representation of the number of general seats won by a political party for which every party has to submit its priority list of candidates. A total of 2.691 million voters, including 1.074 women voters will exercise their right to vote.

The highest number of 522,480 voters is registered in Bajaur district. The voters include 308,104 (59 per cent) men and 214,376 (41 per cent) women.

Khyber district has the second highest voters i.e. 519,290, including 294,228 (57 per cent) men and 225,062 (43 per cent) women.