ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started receiving nomination papers of candidates for the upcoming local government (LG) polls in cantonment areas.

Sunday was the first day for the submission of nomination papers and the process will continue until Tuesday.

Read: Schedule for LG polls in cantt areas announced

“We witnessed great enthusiasm on the first day,” a senior ECP official told Dawn.

LG polls are being held in the 43 cantonment areas across the country on April 25 after a gap of 17 years.

The last LG polls in the areas were held in 1998 when the number of cantonment boards in the country was less than 35. However, all cantonment boards were suspended during Gen Pervez Musharraf’s tenure and temporary three-member boards were formed to run the cantonment areas’ affairs.

Responding to a question about the number of candidates who had filed their nomination papers on Sunday, the ECP official said the commission was compiling the data and would be in a position to provide more details by Monday. The total number of candidates would be clear by Wednesday.

According to the schedule, nomination papers will be scrutinised from April 1 to 14 and candidates will be able to withdraw their nominations till April 10.

Raja Arshad, an ECP official deputed in Rawalpindi, told Dawn that despite heavy rain on Sunday, 10 candidates submitted their nomination papers for the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) elections.

“Candidates reached the election commission office along with their supporters that showed how enthusiastic they were,” the official said.

A total of 220 nomination papers were issued by the ECP for two cantonments in Rawalpindi, RCB and Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB), and it is expected that a majority of serious candidates will file their nomination papers by Monday.

This time, a reserved seat for woman has been included in the cantonment boards, taking the total number of elected representatives in A category board to 13.

In this category, the number of general seats is 10 and now there will be three reserve seats in all cantonment boards -- one each for minorities, peasants and women.

All cantonment boards will be headed by the sitting station commander or a serving brigadier and the number of nominated members (serving army officials to be nominated by the station commander) will be equal to the number of civil members. Thus army officials will be in a majority in every board and will reserve the authority to accept or reject any proposal.

In category B, the number of total civil members will be 10, seven on general seats and three on reserved seats.

In category C, there will be 8 elected members -- five on general seats and three on reserve seats -- while in category D there will be five elected members with two on general and three on reserved seats.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2015

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