PESHAWAR: Returning officers in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have accepted nomination papers of 42,176 aspirants for contesting the first phase of the upcoming local body elections.

However, papers of 2,544 aspirants were rejected, according to the Provincial Election Commission.

The scrutiny of nomination papers was completed on Nov 14, while appeals against their acceptance or rejection were heard from Nov 15 to Nov 17.

The aspirants had filled nominations for elections in 66 tehsil councils and 2,382 village and neighbourhood councils.

In the first phase of elections, polling will be held on Dec 19 for two tiers of the local bodies, while the elections will take place in the remaining 18 districts on Jan 16.

According to the PEC, 1,006 people had filed nomination papers for elections on the seats of mayor or chairman in 66 tehsil councils and of those papers, 977 were accepted and 29 were rejected.

Similarly, 21,788 candidates had submitted nomination papers to the returning officers for contesting elections on general seats of 2,382 village and neighbourhood councils and 20,648 of them were accepted 1,140 were rejected.

For elections on seats reserved for women, 4,220 candidates had filled nominations. Of those papers, 3,943 were accepted and 277 were rejected.

The PEC accepted 7,659 of 8,076 nomination papers filed to contest elections for the seats of peasant and worker and rejected 419.

For the seats of youth, 6,804 aspirants had submitted nomination papers to the returning officers and 6,804 of them were approved and 328 were rejected.

Also, 929 of the 643 nomination papers for elections of the seats of minority seats in the village and neighbourhood councils were rejected accepted and 36 were rejected.

According to the schedule, Nov 22 will be the last date for the withdrawal of candidature.

Election symbols will be allotted the next day (Nov 23) and the final list of contesting candidates will be published the same day. Consolidation of election results is to be completed by Dec 24.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2021