KARACHI: All arrangements for holding by-elections on 32 vacant local government seats in 18 districts of Sindh have been finalised and polling will begin at 8am on Thursday (today) which will continue till 5pm.

The by-elections are being held in Shaheed Benazirabad, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Tando Mohammad Khan, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Ghotki, Sukkur, Naushahro Feroze and Karachi’s Malir, West, South, Central, Korangi and Keamari districts.

Over 170 candidates, mainly belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Jamaat-i-Islami, are in the run for the 32 seats, 10 of which are in Karachi division.

There are a total of 271 polling stations of which 213 have been categorised as ‘highly sensitive’, 47 ‘sensitive’ and 11 ‘normal’.

There are 68 candidates vying for 10 seats in six districts of Karachi

According to the statistics issued by the office of election commissioner of Sindh, there are 433,951 registered voters in these constituencies.

Initially, the LG by-polls were scheduled to be held on 77 vacant seats across the province, but 41 aspirants have been elected unopposed and no nomination papers were filed on four vacant seats.

The by-elections are being held in 18 districts, including six districts in Karachi division, on 11 seats of UC chairmen, six vice chairmen, 13 general member seats and two seats of member of district council.

There are 68 candidates for posts of UC chairmen, 30 for vice chairmen, 54 for general members and 21 aspirants are contesting for member district council.

Karachi’s 10 vacant seats

Moreover, there are 68 candidates in run for 10 vacant seats in the provincial metropolis and 168 polling stations have been set up.

The vacant seats in the city include the chairman of UC-9 Malir Town, general member ward 4 UC-7 Ibrahim Hyderi Town, general member ward-1 of UC-7 Korangi Town, chairman of UC-7 Model Colony Town, chairman of UC-6 Landhi Town, vice-chairman of UC-5 Yaseenabad Gulberg Town, chairman UC-7 Liaquatabad Town, chairman of UC-13 Saddar, general member ward-4 UC-10 Baldia Town and general member ward-4 UC-5 Manghopir Town.

There are a total of over 295,700 registered voters in these constituencies of the city, including over 157,600 male and around 137,800 female voters.

Meanwhile, Sindh Election Commissioner Sharifullah along with other senior officials addressed a press conference on Wednesday providing details of the by-elections.

He was of the view that the election commission was satisfied with the law and order situation and police were also coordinating with other law-enforcement agencies and Rangers could be deputed at the polling stations on the recommendations of district returning officers.

He said that the election material had been delivered to respective polling stations.

The provincial election commissioner, who has recently been reinstated after his suspension over an incident regarding intrusion of a strong room of the ECP by some unidentified persons in Karachi in September, said that the investigations were underway about an incident of burning of election materials during a recount of votes in NA-231 (Malir) on the premises of the office of provincial election commissioner last month.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2024