PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday officially notified the much-awaited results of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections held on May 30, paving the way for filling of the reserved seats and subsequent elections of nazims and naib nazims in the district and tehsil councils.
Though the results were finally notified after 23 days of the polling, these are still vague as several important things that need to be mentioned are missing from the official notification.
For instance, only the names of the winning candidates for the district, tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils, father/husband name, relevant wards and addresses have been mentioned in the official results, whereas the names of their respective political parties have not been given.
The notification was issued on June 23 and uploaded on the official website of ECP on Wednesday.
The notification states that the Election Commission of Pakistan is pleased to notify for information of general public the names of returned candidates against the general seats of territorial wards in the district /tehsil/town councils and all categories of seats in the neighourhood/village councils in the Local Government Elections 2015 held on May 30 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Political affiliation of winners, names of runners-up not mentioned in the list
From the officially announced results no one can analyse how many seats have been won by the different political parties, as the winning candidates’ affiliation has not been mentioned in the notification. Similarly, there is no mention of the votes obtained by the winning candidates and names of the runners-up.
Commenting on the lack of details in the results, an observer wishing not to be named said that at least name of the respective party should have been reflected along with the winning candidates. “The results are very strange,” he said, adding the ECP should have mentioned the turnout of voters and the number of rejected votes. This is just a notification and list of winning candidates and not the results, he commented.
“Fair results require showing each and everything to the satisfaction of all stakeholders,” he said. Amid an unprecedented mismanagement on the polling day and allegations of the candidates about changes in the unofficial results by the returning officers, the absence of important information in the results has created further doubts among the candidates regarding the elections and their results, he said.
Sources in the ECP said that re-polling would be held in around 360 polling stations in the province where polling was either stopped on the election day or declared void after reports of mismanagement, skirmishes, disturbance, etc. They said that the date of the re-polling would be announced within two days.
With the issuance of the official notification, the process of elections of district and tehsil/town nazims and naib nazims will also commence within days. Under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013, the first meeting (of the local council) would be held no later than 15 days from the day on which the names of its members are notified. Under the law, a local council shall in its first meeting and to the exclusion of any other business elect from its members a nazim and naib nazim by open division”.
According to the law, the members to fill seats reserved for women, peasants and workers, youth and non-Muslims in the tehsil and district council would be elected through proportional representation system of the political parties’ list of candidates on the basis of the total number of general seats secured by each political party in the respective council.
The total number of seats secured by a political party shall also include independent returned candidates who may duly join such political parties within three days of the official results of the names of returned candidates.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2015
On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play