LG Elections
JAVED KHAN
PESHAWAR
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) more than 295281 votes were rejected in 37 tehsil council elections held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on December 19.
The provincial consolidated statements results available on the website of ECP revealed that 295281 votes have been excluded from the count in the local body elections held for the category of chairman and mayor elections in 37 tehsils.
The ECP has declared complete provisional results of LG polls in 37 of 63 tehsils.
In tehsil council Charsadda, highest 18583 votes had been rejected and excluded from the count. In Mardan City Mayor Election, 16097 votes had been held back from the count.
In Haripur tehsil the numbers of rejected votes were 12290.
In tehsil council Nowshera and Shabqadar 13464 and 10682 votes respectively had been declared invalid and ousted from the counts. During the Bannu city Mayor Election 11609 votes were uncorrected and excluded from the count. In Kohat tehsil council ECP officials had rejected 11605 votes. In Takhtbhai City Mayor count, 10494 votes were rejected. In tehsil council Lahor Swabi, lower Mohmand, Katlang, Pabbi,Rustum, Topi,Jamrood 7248, 5764, 5135, 876,4540, 5558,3797 votes respectively excluded from the count.
According to provisional results of the ECP around 2.57 million valid votes polled in 37 aforementioned tehsil councils of the province during the local body elections held on December 19, 2021.
The ECP conducted local body polls in the 64 tehsil councils in the phase. However, it has uploaded complete results of only 37 tehsil councils on its official website.
It is pertinent to mention here that a large number of people came out from their houses to cast their votes in LG polls. However, majority stations reported slow polling owing to poor management. One of the major reasons for slow polling was the nature of ballot paper as a voter had to cast six votes for different category candidates. The process of voter identification before casting a vote also delayed the process and many spoiled their votes. Voters also complained that inside polling stations there were no efforts to fix ballot mistakes. Government officials who have deputed on different polling stations said that high rejection rate at various tehsil councils have consequences in close elections such as Peshawar and Mardan.
In the KP local government elections Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI-F) has emerged victorious in 16 tehsil council seats while the PTI has won in 14.
Independent candidates have won 10, Awami National Party (ANP) six, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) three, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Tehreek-e-Istiqlal in the tehsil obtained two each seats in tehsil council elections.
