KARACHI: The Election Commission has announced that the elections of mayor/ deputy mayor and chairman/ vice chairman of district councils, municipal committees, town committees, municipal corporation, district municipal corporations and metropolitan corporation in Sindh will be held on June 8, and their consolidated results will be declared by the returning officer concerned on the next day.

According to the election schedule announced by the commission on Wednesday, the returning officers will issue public notice on May 20 while nomination can be filed by the candidates on May 23 and 24 to be followed by scrutiny on May 25 and 26. The candidates can file appeals against acceptance /rejection of nomination papers by May 28. The appeals will be decided by the appellate authority by May 30, while the candidates can withdraw from the contest by May 31. The final list of candidates will be published along with their election symbols on June 1.

The election commission has also notified that the offices of the election commission as well as the offices of district returning officers and returning officers shall remain open on all public holidays during the election process.

According to a report, party positions on reserved seats in the local government polls of 2015 in the union councils and union committees, except district Sanghar, emerged as follows.Pakistan Peoples Party has bagged 4,460 reserved seats, which was the highest number of seats won by one party in the province, followed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement and independent candidates who secured 991 and 536 seats, respectively. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz got 275 seats, while the PML-Functional won 238 seats. Still 109 seats are vacant, including 70 seats reserved for non-Muslim communities, 18 for youths, 16 for women and five for labourers.

In all, there were 6,831 reserved seats in the province with a break-up of 2,660 seats reserved for women, 1,401 for labourers, 1,388 for youths and 1,382 for non-Muslim communities.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2016