PESHAWAR, Oct 9: About 104 candidates are vying for the four National Assembly and 11 provincial assembly seats in the Peshawar district.

In all, 899,069 voters will exercise their right of franchise. The number of male voters is 524,347 and that of female voters is 374,722.

NA-1 (Peshawar-I) is the largest constituency here as far as the number of voters is concerned: 129,748 men and 104,159 women will be casting their votes.

The number of voters enrolled in the NA-2 (Peshawar-II) constituency is 216,587 — 124,644 male and 91,943 female.

A total of 226,299 voters are registered in NA-3 (Peshawar-III) — 133,623 male and 92,676 female.

The number of voters in NA-4 (Peshawar IV) is 222,276 — 136,332 male and 85,944 female.

According to the final lists of candidates notified by the Election Commission, 23 candidates are in the run for the four National Assembly seats, whereas 81 contestants are vying for the 11 provincial assembly constituencies.

Almost all the major political parties and groups, i.e. the PPP, ANP, PML (N), MMA, PML (Q), PPP (Sherpao) and PTI, have fielded their candidates. The ANP and PPP have entered into electoral adjustment following which each of them has fielded its candidates for two NA seats, whereas five provincial assembly seats were given to the PPP to contest for and six to the ANP.

Only two former parliamentarians — the former senator and provincial general secretary of the PML(N), Iqbal Zaffar Jhagra, and former MNA of ANP, Arbab Zahir — have been contesting for the NA seats. Likewise, only eight former MPAs have been trying their luck this time. They are: the former speaker of the NWFP Assembly, Hidayatullah Chamkani of ANP; the former deputy speaker, Haji Adeel of the ANP; former provincial ministers Arbab Ayub Jan of NAPP, Syed Ali Shah of PML (Q), Bashir Bilour of ANP and Iftikhar Jhagra of PPP; and former MPAs Ayub Shah of PPP and Haji Abdul Raziq of PML (N).

The candidates for NA-1 (Peshawar I) are: Shabir Ahmad Khan of the MMA, Usman Bilour of ANP, Moazam Butt of PML (Q), Mohammad Khursheed (Independent), Sajid Abdullah of PTI and Rabia Mufti.

From the NA-2 constituency, the candidates are: Arbab Alamgir Khan of PPP, Maulana Rehmatullah of MMA, Abdul Manan Akhundzada of PPP (Sherpao) and Khalid Ayub of the Awami Tehrik. For the NA-3 the candidates are: Iqbal Jhagra of PML (N), Kiramatullah Khan of PPP, Arbab Ayub Jan of NAPP, Akhter Ali Khan (Independent), Qari Fayyazur Rehman of MMA and Hidayatullah of PPP (Sherpao).

There are six candidates for the NA-4 (Peshawar IV): Arbab Zahir of ANP, Haji Abdul Raziq of PML (N), Mohammad Intikhab of PML (Z), Sabir Hussain Awan of MMA, Arbab Shabir Ahmad of PML (Q) and Haji Jawed Iqbal of PTI.