First time ever: Islooites elect their representatives at grassroots level

Islamabad
For the first time in the city’s history, Islooites are going to choose their representatives at grassroots level by ballot today (Monday) by participating in the local government elections.
Though Islamabad currently has representation in both houses of parliament, it elects its representatives for the National Assembly only as its Senators are elected by nominations.
Also, the federal capital has no legislative body for itself unlike other federating units of the country.
In this light, the local government elections are held to empower representatives of Islamabad residents elected at grassroots level to carry out administrative and financial responsibilities of the government and thus, ensuring good governance.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has divided the Islamabad Capital Territory into 50 union councils before establishing 460 polling stations for elections for their representatives.
Of the 326 buildings where polling stations have been set up, 62 have been declared the most sensitive.
A total of 2,396 candidates are in the running for the 550 seats of union council chairman, vice chairman and councillors, major contest is expected between the ruling PML-N led by Nawaz Sharif and opposition PTI led by Imran Khan.
However, in some constituencies, independents have good chances of winning elections.
According to the ECP statistics, 255 candidates will contest for the UC chairman seats, 1,210 for general councillor's, 351 for woman councillor's, 248 for labour councillor's, 230 for youth councillor's and 102 for minority councillor's.
A total of 680,612 registered voters, including 367,960 men and 312,652 women, are eligible to participate in the electoral exercise, which will begin at 7:30am and continue until 5:30pm nonstop.
Around 6,025 army men, 700 Rangers personnel and 1,000 personnel of FC will help the local police maintain law and order in the capital during elections.