PESHAWAR: The nomination papers of 861 candidates for heading the city and tehsil councils and 14,795 contenders for the slots of general councillors have been accepted for the second phase of the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said the papers of 12 candidates for the slots of mayor/chairman city and tehsil councils have been rejected.
Besides, 440 papers have been rejected which were filed for the office of general councillors, chairmen in village and neighbourhood councils.
A total of 3,284 nomination papers filed for women councillors, 6,870 for the peasant councillors, 5,622 for youth councillors and papers of 113 candidates for minorities councillors have been accepted during the scrutiny process.
Over 32,000 candidates had filed papers for different categories of city, tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils in the second phase of the LG polls.
There are a total of 65 city and tehsil councils and 1,830 village and neighbourhood councils in 18 districts where elections are being held in the second phase. LG polls are being held for the first time in four districts of the erstwhile tribal areas including Kurram, Orakzai, North and South Waziristan.
The other districts where polls are being held in the second phase include Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Torghar, Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, Kolai-Palas in Hazara division and Swat, Malakand, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Upper Chitral and Lower Chitral and Shangla in Malakand division.
In the first phase, polls were held in half of the province, including Peshawar, on December 19. Polling for the second phase of the elections will be held on March 31 while the consolidation of the results will be done on April 4. The ECP has warned all the public office-holders of action under the law in case of announcement or inauguration of developmental projects or using official resources in the districts where elections are being held next month.
