PESHAWAR: With thousands of contestants spending billions of rupees, canvassing for the upcoming local government elections has generated a huge economic activity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Experts say even if candidates strictly follow the election code of conduct and do not exceed the expenditure ceiling fixed by the Election Commission of Pakistan, thousands of them are to use over Rs6 billion on their election campaigns.

“Mostly, candidates mostly spend two times more than the permissible sum of money suggesting the overall economic activity will involve much more than the overall permissible amount of Rs6 billion,” said an official having expertise in the field on Saturday.

Read: Canvassing for local govt votes at fever pitch

On March 3, 2015, the ECP issued a code of conduct through a notification for election candidates and public office-holders.

According to Section 20 of the said code, a candidate contesting for the village or neighbourhood council can use up to Rs50,000 on his/her campaign and a candidate for district or tehsil council up to Rs200,000.

The final data of the ECP shows that 88,420 candidates are contesting billions pumped into LG election canvassing the upcoming local government elections which are scheduled to be held on May 30.

Of the total candidates, 77,033 are contesting for village and neighbourhood councils, including 39,079 on general seats, 15,700 on those of peasants, 14,224 on those of youths and 349 on those of non-Muslims.

Similarly, 5,480 candidates are contesting on district council general seats and 5,907 on those of tehsil councils.

“I have so far spent Rs80,000 on campaign,” one of the candidates, who contesting for the seat of general councilor in a village council, told Dawn.

He said by the end of his campaign on May 29, the expenses on campaign would exceed Rs150,000.

He said a day earlier, the owner of a printing press charged Rs11,000 for making 20 panaflex banners measuring 6x4, while he paid another Rs10,000 for preparing 1,000 posters.

A resident of Kohat Road area told Dawn that one of his friends, who was contesting for the general seat for the lowest tier of the local government, has so far spent more than Rs50,000 for making 100 panaflex banners only.

“The expenses on the campaign for district and tehsil councils of each candidates will the cross the figure of Rs400,000,” Ameen Gul, a local political leader, told Dawn.

He said besides publicity materials, the candidates also paid thousands of rupees for hiring vehicles on rent during their daily campaign.

He said some candidates also paid to the influential people for arranging corner meetings for them, which was a common practice during any elections.

Owners of printing presses in Urdu Bazaar, previously known as Mohallah Jangi, a hub of printing units, have done business beyond expectation, said Ahmad Khan, who is attached with the printing industry for a decade.

He said after the introduction of lower tier in the local government system, printing units were overloaded.

Ahmad Khan said around half of the candidates had published their publicity materials in the big cities of Punjab and Afghanistan due to the unprecedented rush of the contestants in Urdu Bazaar and lack of the capacity of printing units.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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