Karachi: Voting is underway today (Sunday) for the first phase of local body elections in 14 districts of four divisions of Sindh with some incidents of violence and clashes between workers of different political parties.
Voting began at 8 am and will go on till 5 pm non-stop.
The 14 districts of Sindh include Larkana, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Nowshero Firoz, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umarkot and Tharparkar.
The remaining districts of Sindh will go to the polls on July 24. news informed of.
At least 21,298 candidates are in the fray against 6,277 seats in 101 municipal committees, 23 municipal committees, 14 district councils, four municipal corporations, eleven municipal corporations and 887 union councils and union committees.
Election postponed in some wards due to wrong printing
A spokesman for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) confirmed that local body elections in some wards were postponed due to incorrect printing (typographic error) of names of candidates in ballot papers.
He said that the ECP will release a new schedule for the elections to the seats. The spokesperson said that the ECP has started investigation in this regard.
Candidates stage protest
Meanwhile, in Nawabshah, several candidates protested over the wrong printing of election symbols in ballot papers. One TLP candidate was of the view that she was allotted the symbol “Crane”, but it was printed in ballots as “Queen”. The presiding officer stopped the voting process at the seat.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission has set up 9,023 polling stations, including 1,895 for women, to facilitate over 11 million registered voters.
According to an ECP spokesperson, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja is monitoring the voting process in the province.
Meanwhile, monitoring cells have been set up in Islamabad and Sindh Election Commissioner’s office to ensure transparent elections.
In addition, at least 1,985 polling stations have been declared highly sensitive and 3,448 as sensitive. Paramilitary rangers and police have been deployed at 2,980 highly sensitive polling stations across the province.
CCTV cameras have been installed at the most sensitive polling stations.