The polling in the first round of Local Government elections marred by the incidents of violence and irregularities in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa came to an end at 5pm today (Sunday) and the process of vote counting has started, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
The election staff closed the doors of the polling stations. However, they allowed people who were inside the booths to cast their votes.
However, reports poured in that at a polling station set up at Government Girls Primary School, Zargarabad, Peshawar, people refused to leave the polling station even after the end of the balloting time. They kept on scaling the walls of the school to poll their votes.
The next phase of LB elections will be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa next month.
For the first round, the polling started at 8am and will continue till 5pm.
Strict security arrangements were in place as a total of 79,479 police and other law enforcement agencies personnel were deployed in the 17 districts where the voting was taking place. Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshehra and Peshawar were among the 17 districts.
However, voting for the election of Dera Ismail Khan mayor city council was deferred after the murder of ANP candidate Umar Khatab in an armed attack on Saturday morning. The security in DI Khan and nearby districts was beefed up following the murder.
ECP statistics
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 12.66 million voters are registered across the 17 districts with 7. 015 million male voters and 5.653 million female voters.
As many as 37,752 candidates were in the run for different categories in the first phase of the elections. Among these 689 were in the run to lead the city and tehsil councils while 19,285 candidates were in the run for the slot of general councillors, chairmen in village and neighbourhood councils.
Besides, 3,905 candidates were flexing their muscles for the seats for women councillors, 7513 for peasant councillors, 6081 for youth councillors and 282 for minority councillors.
As many as 876 women councillors have already been elected unopposed in different village and neighbourhood councils across the province. A large number of minority councillors have been elected unopposed.
Security arrangements
A total of 9,223 polling stations and 28,892 polling booths have been set up for Sunday's voting.
Of these, 2,507 polling stations have been declared most sensitive, 4,188 sensitive, while 528 have been categorized as normal. As many as 860 polling stations have been designated as sensitive, 165 as most sensitive, and 224 as normal in the provincial capital. Around 11,000 policemen and personnel of other forces have been deployed for security during polling in Peshawar alone.
This is for the first time that LG polls are being held in districts of erstwhile Fata.
Political parties have fielded candidates for almost all seats and at least 17 candidates are competing for the mayorship of Peshawar.