August 18, 2005	Thursday	Rajab 12, 1426

ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: Candidates holding madressah sanads have been allowed to contest the local body elections but disqualification proceedings will be conducted by election tribunals if their opponents challenged them in the event of their victory.

“The Election Commission has not decided to keep candidates holding such sanads out of the race at such a short notice, especially when it has not yet received the judgment of the Supreme Court,” said Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar on the eve of the first phase of local polls.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, he said arrangements had been completed for the nationwide electoral exercise.

Justice Dogar earlier announced postponement of polls in Sindh’s Ghotki district after the Sindh High Court set aside a notification creating 15 new union councils. Following the announcement, the polling will now be held in 53 districts on Thursday.

Election staff have been deputed and election material provided to the polling stations.

Polling will be held between 8am and 5pm without any break. Polling agents and voters will not be allowed to carry mobile phones inside polling stations. A public holiday has been announced in districts where elections are being held.

According to the commission, 114,496 candidates are in the run in the first phase. Of them, candidates who have filed papers for union council nazims and naib nazims number 8,827, minorities 3,063, peasant and workers (women) 9,829, peasant and worker (male) 26,072, Muslim women 14,242 and Muslim general 52,463.

Despite repeated warnings to the heads of political parties not to participate or sponsor election campaigns of candidates or use state machinery or display banners suggesting their support for a particular candidate, political parties have fielded their candidates under different group names and are running campaigns, openly challenging the polls’ non-party status.

On Tuesday, the CEC barred federal as well as provincial ministers, ministers of state, advisers, chairmen of standing committees, senators, members of national and provincial assemblies from entering polling stations on the polling day.

Karachi is considered to be the most sensitive area where the CEC planned to spend a considerable time to monitor the election process. International observers have also arrived to monitor the polls.

About 32,000 polling stations have been set up with 128,000 polling booths in the 53 districts and 750,000 polling staff have been deputed.

The districts where elections are being held in the first phase are:

PUNJAB: Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sargodha, Khushab, Multan, Lodhran, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Vehari, D.G. Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahimyar Khan (17 districts).

SINDH: Karachi, Thatta, Tando Allahyar, Nausharo Feroz, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar and Tharparkar (10 districts).

NWFP: Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Kohat, Karak, Bannu, D.I. Khan, Tank, Haripur and Buner (12 districts).

BALOCHISTAN: Khuzdar, Mastung, Kharan, Awaran, Pishin, Noshki, Sibi, Ziarat, Bolan, Nasirabad, Jaffarabad, Killa Saifullah, Barkhan and Gwadar (14 districts).

The CEC told Dawn that the elections in Ghotki district “have been postponed on the request of the Sindh government” in the wake of the Sindh High Court decision. “We have not yet decided to re-schedule polls in the district in the second phase,” the CEC observed.

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