PESHAWAR: It is all set for the largest local government polls in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa today (Saturday) with the people going to elect 41,762 councilors in the three tiers of local councils.

After the completion of tenure by the last local councils formed in Feb 2005, the holding of local government elections after a delay of five years became possible after several twists and turns, which finally involved the Supreme Court to issue directives for the purpose.

The polling will start at 8am and will continue until 5pm.

More than 13.1 million people will exercise their right of vote.

The distribution of election material among election staff began on Friday morning in different government schools.

The election staff members were seen moving towards their destination in different vehicles with ballot boxes and other election material.

The police reportedly impounded public transport vehicles to transport election material and polling staff to polling stations in different areas of Peshawar.

More than 13m to vote for 88,420 candidates

Most members of polling staff Dawn spoke to complained about poor arrangements for the delivery of election material to them at the Government Higher Secondary School No 1, Peshawar City.

They said the material distribution began one and a half hours behind schedule.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, a total of 11,211 polling stations have been established in 24 districts of the province except Kohistan.

Of these polling stations, 3,428 are for men, 3,059 for women and 4,724 combined.

The elections will not take place in Kohistan as the district’s bifurcation has been challenged in the Peshawar High Court.

The highest number of 1,003 polling stations has been established in Peshawar, including 518 for men, 439 for women and 46 combined.

Similarly, 11,403 presiding officers, 95,646 assistant presiding officers and 31,882 polling officers have been deputed at polling stations across the province.

According to the ECP, 88,420 candidates are in the running for the elections.

Of them, 77,033 are contesting for village and neighbourhood councils, including 39,079 for general seats, 15,700 for peasants, 14,224 for youths, 7,681 for women and 349 for non-Muslims.

Similarly, 5,480 candidates are contesting for the general seats of district councils and 5907 for tehsil councils.

The last provincial government had dissolved local councils on February 20, 2010 after the completion of their tenure. Afterwards, administrators replaced nazims of those bodies.

The last local government elections took place in February 2005.

After dissolution of local councils, the ANP government had claimed to hold fresh local government elections within six months on party basis.

However, it failed to hold local government elections until the expiry of its tenure.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which came to power in the province after winning the May 2013 general elections, began considering reforms in local government system shortly after forming government.

It formed a working group, which later recommended a three tiers local government system including district, tehsil and village or neighbourhood councils.

The provincial Assembly passed a law, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, to incorporate all reforms recommended by the working group.

Under the new local government system, the province has been divided into 978 wards in all districts, excluding Kohistan, besides 39,806 village and neighbourhood councils.

From 10 to 15 members will be elected in each village and neighbourhood councils, including five to 10 general seats, two women and each single peasant, minority and youth.

The number of general seats depends on the size of population in the respective village and neighbourhood councils.

Similarly, one each candidate will be elected for the membership of district and town councils from each ward.

Our correspondent from Swat adds: General Officer Commanding (GOC) Swat Major General Nadar Khan on Friday warned that those found sabotaging peaceful atmosphere during the local government polls would be dealt with strictly.

He was speaking during a meeting here, where Malakand division commissioner Kifayatullah Khan, divisional inspector general of police Azad Khan and senior officials of the administration were in attendance.

The participants discussed security measures for the polls and later inspected the election control room established at the Commissioner’s House.

The GOC praised the administration for making excellent security arrangements to hold local body polls in a smooth, free and fair manner.

He said no compromise would be made on the fairness of elections and the people’s safety during the electoral exercise.

DIG Azad Khan said the police vigilantly monitored every part of the district.

“Foreigners entering Swat district are being checked, while tight security steps are being taken throughout the district,” he said.

“The district’s all exit and entry points are being closely monitored and special check posts have been set up in the highly volatile areas to protect public life,” he said.

The DIG said the communication system installed at the control room should be checked repeatedly to ensure its smooth functioning on the polling day.

He called for better coordination among security agencies to prevent any untoward happening.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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