KARACHI: Preparations under way for 3rd phase of LB polls: Nominations from Sept 3
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Aug 28: The process of local body election in the country will complete on Sept 29 when the newly-elected union council members, forming the electoral college, will elect nazims of their respective city district governments or taluka/ tehsil/town councils.
They will also elect fellow members for the seats reserved for women, peasants/workers and minorities.
The process of election through the electoral college, being the third phase of the LB polls, begins on September 3 with the issuance of nomination forms. Returning officers of the concerned area would receive nomination papers from Sept 5 to Sept 9, Sindh Election Commissioner Ali Ahmed Halepota told Dawn.
According to the schedule, the provisional list of candidates would be put on display on Sept 8 and objections against nominations would be received on Sept 9, he said, adding that the scrutiny of nomination papers would be completed by Sept 10. In the next two days, appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers would be received whereas all such appeals would be disposed of on Sept 13.
Following withdrawal of nomination papers on Sept 14, the final list of candidates would be released the next day. Results of the polling, to be held on Sept 29, would be notified on Oct 1.
Unlike the third phase of LB polls, the earlier two phases were direct elections held on Aug 18 and Aug 25 for UCs throughout the country. Polling in the first phase was to be held in 54 districts but in Ghotki district, it was stopped by the Sindh High Court.
The Local Government System introduced in 2001 is part of the devolution plan aimed at devolving powers at grassroots level so that the services that could be rendered more effectively by local bodies than the upper tiers of the government could be assigned to the lowest tier of the government.
Following completion of the whole process in Karachi, the City Council will have strength of 255 members. Nazims of all 178 UCs of the district would be called general councillors while the candidates for the reserved seats – women (59), peasants/workers (9) and minority (9) — would be elected by an electoral college comprising members of all 178 UCs, including their nazims and naib nazims.
In the case of town and taluka councils, all naib nazims of union councils would be called general councillors while in the case of a city district government, nazims of all UCs falling in that district would become members of the same district’s council.
Every member of the electoral college of a city district government is eligible to contest the slot of its nazim. The electoral college comprises a total of 2,314 members.
For the slot of town/tehsil/taluka nazim, an eligible candidate is any person having his name in the voter list of the concerned UC. However, for the office of the naib nazim of a city/town/ taluka/tehsil council, a non-UC councillor is not eligible to contest whereas the election is held in the first session of the house.
According to the procedure of elections, every member of the electoral college of the city district is given eight ballot papers in all and he has to vote for two nazims (city nazim and town/taluka nazim), and councillors representing women, peasants/workers and minorities on reserved seats in city council and town/taluka/tehsil council.
For election of nazim, councillors on reserved seats in town/taluka councils, and councillors on reserved in city district council, three separate polling stations would be set up.
