KARACHI: Around 5.8 million voters in 14 Sindh districts — barring 81 union councils where polling has been postponed pending delimitation — will vote for over 18,000 candidates vying for more than 5,100 constituencies in various tiers of municipal units in the second phase of the local government elections on Thursday (today).

Nine districts of Hyderabad division, three of Mirpurkhas and two of Benazirabad divisions have been marked for the second phase of the LG polls.

The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party emerged as the dominant force in the first phase of the polls held in three districts of Sukkur division and five districts of Larkana division on Oct 31. The party grabbed around 70 per cent of the total seats.

For the second phase, the polls had been originally planned in 15 districts, but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed the polling in Sanghar district for security reasons. Sanghar is a stronghold of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) where the ECP spotted tensions running high in the aftermath of the violence in Khairpur’s Daraza union council in the first phase of the polls in which 11 people were killed — most of whom were later found to be PML-F supporters.

According to the election commission, 12,000 candidates have been contesting in 3,295 constituencies of Hyderabad division’s nine districts namely Hyderabad, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Dadu, Jamshoro, Badin, Thatta and Sujawal.

Over 4,000 candidates will contest for 1,100 seats in three districts of Mirpurkhas division namely Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar.

After the postponement of polling in Sanghar, the remaining two districts of Benazirabad division — Naushahro Feroz and Benazirabad — will offer 745 seats for which more than 2,000 candidates are contesting elections.

The ECP has cancelled the elections on 81 union councils in the three divisions, thus some 175 seats in Mirpurkhas; 168 seats in Hyderabad and 189 seats in Benazirabad will remain uncontested.

Each of the 14 districts has one district council apiece and each union council has four wards.

In Hyderabad, there are 96 union committees with each union committee comprising four wards. The chairmen of the union committees will form Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and elect the city’s mayor and deputy mayor.

In Badin, Dr Zulfikar Mirza, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and several groups are vying against the PPP. How much stakes are high there can be gauged from the fact that the PPP had to rely on its chairman to lead the campaign for his candidates. Heavy contingents of the Rangers and police have already been deputed in the district to prevent any untoward incident.

Close encounters are expected in parts of Thar, where the Arbabs have the hold, as well as Moro and Kandiaro talukas of Naushahro Feroz district where the Jatois of the PML-N and other allied local groups have the PPP as a common nemesis. Some candidates such as MQM’s Dr Naeem in Nawabshah would contest the polls from behind bars.

Meanwhile, Thursday has been declared a holiday in the 14 districts to facilitate the polls.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2015