KARACHI, July 20: Till midnight Wednesday, the deadline to file nomination papers in the first phase of local government elections 2005, almost all offices of returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) were humming with aspirants’ activity. Under the prescribed rules, soon after the closing time, the ROs are supposed to put on display a provisional list of the aspirants’ names and particulars along with the names of their proposers and seconders so that anyone having any objection could refer to the authorities concerned.
Great activity was witnessed amid heavy rush till 5pm at the offices of DROs where a large number of candidates, their proposers and seconders were seen making hectic efforts to get voters certificate, specifying that the person proposing or seconding the nomination of a duly qualified person to be a member from a union council of the electoral area and was registered as voter therein.
The returning officers, after receiving the nomination papers, were assigning a serial number to each nomination paper and were endorsing the names of those filing the same.
The Election Commission has ensured availability of nomination papers with the ROs. For the 7,657 members of 589 councils in 11, out of 23, Sindh districts where elections are being held in the first phase, more than 100,000 nomination forms were made available with the ROs.
For 178 UCs in Karachi, some 200 forms for each UC were supplied and there was no complaint about non-availability of the nomination papers.
The EC’s decision to extend the deadline to two days for the submission of forms also helped the aspirants who would otherwise have failed to get their forms filed due to some discrepancies.
The Chief Election Commissioner, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, arrived in the city during the day. He will be presiding over a meeting of the DROs/district & sessions judges, chief secretary and other senior officers of the Sindh government at 11am on Thursday at the Sindh Assembly building.
Although the agenda of the meeting has not been disclosed to the press, the circles close to the EC office told Dawn that arrangements for the holding of free, fair and transparent elections in a peaceful atmosphere would be reviewed at the meeting.
Informed sources said that as was witnessed in the previous LB polls, possibility of some candidates returning unopposed, particularly those contesting on reserved women seats, could not be ruled out. They said that some seats going uncontested for want of candidates was also possible.
The districts where elections for union councils are scheduled to be held on August 18 are 178 UCs in Karachi, 55 in Thatta, 19 in Tando Allahyar, 42 in Ghotki, 51 in Naushero Feroz, 40 in Jacobabad, 37 in Kashmor, 41 in Mirpurkhas, 27 in Umarkot, 55 in Sanghar and 44 in Tharparkar.
KARACHI, July 20: Till midnight Wednesday, the deadline to file nomination papers in the first phase of local government elections 2005, almost all offices of returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) were humming with aspirants’ activity. Under the prescribed rules, soon after the closing time, the ROs are supposed to put on display a provisional list of the aspirants’ names and particulars along with the names of their proposers and seconders so that anyone having any objection could refer to the authorities concerned.
