PESHAWAR: The opposition Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam-Fazl on Wednesday won the chairmanship of two more tehsil councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa taking its overall tally of the top local body seats to 17.

The Provincial Election Commission has so far declared the provisional results of the Dec 19 local body polls in 47 tehsil councils with the JUI-F’s electoral lead growing.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has clinched chairmanship of 12 tehsil councils.

In the provincial capital, JUI-F candidate Haji Zubair Ali has a lead of over 11,000 votes over the runner-up, Rizwan Bangash of the PTI. Mr Ali has secured 62,388 votes against 50, 659 votes of Mr Bangash.

However, the results for the mayor election have been withheld by the ECP after the postponement of polling in six polling stations due to law and order situation.

Observers insist that Mr Ali’s lead is so massive that even the outcome of the re-polling on the six polling stations is unlikely to change the overall results.

Out of the remaining six tehsil chairmen seats of the provincial capital, the JUI-F has clinched four seats, while the PTI and ANP have won one top tehsil council slot each.

The ruling PTI has shown poor performance in the provincial capital despite having 11 of the 14 MPAs, all five MNAs, provincial governor and several ministers from there. It won only one of the seven tehsil council chairmanship seats.

Independent candidates grabbed the third highest number of seven tehsil chairmanship seats from different areas of the province.

The opposition Awami National Party has bagged six tehsil council chairman seats, PML-N three and Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Peoples Party and Tehreek-i-Islahat Pakistan one each.

Of the 63 tehsil councils, where elections were held on Sunday, the ECP has so fat released 47 names of the winning candidates. The rest of election results are either withheld due to re-polling or will be released later.

The ECP has not declared the election results for any of the four tehsil councils in Lakki Marwat district and four in Karak district. Similarly, the poll results are awaited for two tehsil councils in Khyber, one in Mohmand, one in Dera Ismail Khan and two in Bajaur.

The PEC has cancelled elections in three tehsils of Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu districts.

ANP candidate for tehsil council slot Umar Khitab Shirani was killed a day before elections leading to election postponement. Violence was reported in Darra tehsil of Kohat district. A mob protesting the merger of Fata with KP had stopped people from casting vote. Similarly, some ECP staff were abducted along with the election material.

Similarly, the ECP announced re-election in some polling stations of Peshawar, Khyber, Mohmand and other districts, where polling were stopped on the election day due to violence.

An official in the regional ECP office in Peshawar told Dawn that the data had yet not compiled of the areas where re-elections would be held.

“We are working on the matter and will be shared in a couple of days,” he said.

In the first phase, the local body elections were held on Sunday in 17 districts of the province, while the elections for local bodies in the remaining districts will take place on Jan 16.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2021