December 17, 2007	Monday	Zilhaj 6, 1428

KARACHI, Dec 16: The process of general elections, scheduled for Jan 8, entered its final phase on Sunday as the Election Commi-ssion released the final list of candidates and their symbols.

This is perhaps the first election in Sindh where not a single candidate has returned unopposed from the 61 general seats in the National Assembly and 130 of the Sindh Assembly.

In two constituencies of the provincial assembly — PS-103 and PS-106 – and one of the National Assembly — NA-246 — three candidates are in the field. NA-198, Sukkur, and PS-126, Karachi-38, have the highest number of candidates, 25.

According to Sindh provincial Election Commissioner Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, 627 candidate-s are in the field after withdrawal of 228 of 915 nominations for the 61 general seats of the Natio-nal Assembly in the province.

For the nine reserved women’s seats from Sindh in the National Assembly, nomination papers of 39 candidates were found valid and 36 of them are in the field after withdrawal of three of them.

For the 130 general seats of the Sindh Assembly, there were 2,140 valid candidates, 672 of them have withdrawn and 1,468 are in the run.

For the 29 seats reserved for women in the assembly, 83 candidates are in the run as three of the 86 valid nomination papers have been withdrawn.

For the nine reserved seats for women, three of the 34 valid aspirants have withdrawn and the contest will be among 31 candidates.

In Karachi, 280 candidates filed nomination papers for 20 general seats of the National Assembly but 164 of them have been left in the filed after scrutiny and withdrawal. For the 42 general seats of the Sindh Assembly in the provincial capital, 373 candidates are in the run.