SWABI: The fresh delimitation of constituencies for the 2018 elections in Swabi district has upset the Awami National Party, which has already announced poll candidates in its stronghold.

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s move has reduced the number of the district’s provincial assembly seats from six to five.

Now, as the constituencies of five candidates of the Asfandyar Wali-led party are unchanged, Islam Khan and Amjad Khan, who belong to Chota Lahor tehsil, are adversely affected by the delimitation.

Party has already announced candidates

The two belong to PK-45, Swabi-III.

The insiders said the ANP was confused about who to field in the constituency as Mr Amjad was considered quite fit for contesting election, while Mr Islam could also not be dropped.

“The situation is very complicated and nobody knows how Mr Islam will be adjusted,” a local ANP leader told Dawn.

Insiders said Mr Islam could be fielded in NA-18, Swabi-I but doing so under the local political circumstances would be a difficult thing to do.

They said the possible move could adversely impact the party’s electoral position in the constituency.

The sources said during the awarding of the ticket, Sarfraz Khan Jadoon, who had won the elections twice from the erstwhile PK-36, Swabi-VI, said he would contest elections in the constituency if the party ticket of their national assembly was awarded to Shah Nawaz Khan.

The ANP announced ticket for Shah Nawaz.

Now, if Shah Nawaz is made to give up the ticket for Mr Islam, the move will adversely impact the chances of Sarfraz winning the election, sources said.

The sources said any wrong move by the central leadership could divide the party completely in the district as Topi city, headquarters of the Topi tehsil, would be annoyed if Mr Islam got the ticket and if Sarfraz decided not to contest election, the mountainous Gadoon Amazai region would be upset.

The sources said there were rumours about the party awarding ticket to Abdur Raziq of Kotha village for PK-43, Swabi-1, the constituency for which ticket was awarded to Mr Sarfraz.

They however said the move would have far-reaching negative impact on the party’s electoral position in the district considered to be its stronghold.

Meanwhile, JUI-F central deputy chief Maulana Fazal Ali rejected the delimitation of constituencies in the district and demanded that the Election Commission restore old constituencies for the next general polls.

He told to party workers here on Wednesday that the total electoral scenario had gone under a massive change after the delimitation of constituencies in the district, which had created numerous challenges and confusion for the leaders of political parties.

“We have registered our complaint with the ECP over delimitation of constituencies and decided to work for reversing it without delay,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2018