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IN the absence of official results of the first phase of local body election, which were scheduled to be announced by the Election Commission on Saturday, rival groups kept claiming victory in Punjab.
In Balochistan, the groups backed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League claimed to have swept in 12 districts out of the 17 where polling was held on Aug 18.
The groups backed by the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Awami National Party made major gains in the NWFP. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) and Jamaat-i-Islami, component parties of the ruling Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, had supported separate panels in many UCs.
In Sindh, panels enjoying backing of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and its coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement claimed to have won majority of union councils in the province.
Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi claimed clean sweep by the ruling PML in even those districts where the party’s panels for nazims had showed poor results.
In the districts of Bahawalnagar, Pakpattan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Lodhran, Layyah and Vehari panels supported by the chief minister for the top slots fared rather poorly against the disgruntled PML groups and opposition who, at some places, had also made adjustments.
According to unofficial results, the ruling party is in clear lead in Multan, Rajanpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Khushab, Bahawalpur and Sialkot. In Gujranwala opposition is in majority.
In other districts, the ruling party will have to get the support of the disgruntled PML groups or opposition for the post of district nazims. For instance, opposition is in a decisive position in Muzaffargarh, Lodhran, Vehari, Pakpattan and Dera Ghazi Khan for the election of tehsil and district nazims.
In Rahim Yar Khan, Khanewal, Layyah and Bahawalnagar the PML can form district governments only after wooing the disgruntled PML groups who had made adjustment against official nominees.
In Quetta, media adviser to Balochistan Chief Minister Raziq Bugti told a press conference that the Pro-development Panels backed by the ruling party had won in 12 out of 14 districts where the polling was held on Thursday.
Mr Bugti said that the victory in Gwadar showed that local population supported mega-projects in the port city.
He asserted the Pro-development groups had won 204 union councils out of 274.
Out of the 556 UCs in the NWFP, the ANP-backed panels claimed to have won in 113 union councils, the panels supported by the JUI-F in 91, the groups backed by the PPP-P in 57 and the JI-supported candidates claimed victory in 51 union councils.
ELECTION COMMISSION: Meanwhile, the Election Commission said that official results of the first phase of the local government elections held in 53 districts across the country on Aug 18 would be announced on Tuesday.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad on Saturday night, EC secretary Kanwar Dilshad said that returning officers were consolidating the results of all the 3,032 union councils where thepolling was held. On receipt of these results from all the provinces, he added, the commission would publish the results on Aug 23.
The secretary said that the voter-turnout had been around 45 per cent which was likely to reach 50 per cent at the end of the second phase to be held in the rest of the 56 districts on Aug 25.
Meanwhile, acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar declared that the first phase of the elections had been held in a free, fair and transparent manner which, he said, had also prompted a bullish trend in the Karachi Stock Exchange.
He said one of the reasons for peaceful elections was that all directions and instructions which the commission had issued from time to time had been implemented promptly.
“The second phase of the local government elections, scheduled to be held on Aug 25, will be more peaceful and more organized than the first one as we have removed the shortcomings we faced during the conduct of the first phase,” the CEC told reporters here at the Election Cell.
Mr Dilshad, rejecting reports of rigging, said prompt actions were taken by the CEC on any such complaint.
About incidents in which a number of people were killed in different parts of the country during polling, he said detailed reports on the issue had been sought from the concerned authorities.
He was of the view that a record number of women had cast votes, adding it was for the first time that separate polling stations had been set up for women.
He rejected reports that women had been barred from casting vote in different districts of Peshawar and said no such written complaint, even from civil organizations, had been received by the commission.
It is also for the first time that the commission had banned entry of ministers, parliamentarians and advisers to polling stations, he said.
APP adds: ”Copy of the results has been placed outside the conference room of ECP secretariat for inspection,” Mr Dilshad said.
He said copies of the results had also been made available in offices of returning officers and district returning officers for public convenience.
