ECP sor far declared preliminary results of 47 tehsil councils
JAVED KHAN
PESHAWAR
The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) appears to have failed to win a single seat of tehsil council chairmanship in seven districts of theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has so far uploaded the preliminary results of the December 19 local government elections in 47 tehsil councils.
The PTI candidates contested for the tehsil council chairmanships in districts Mardan, Charssadda, Tank, Khyber, Haripur and Kohat failed to secure a single seat.
The ruling party in KP lost chairmanship elections in four tehsils of district Mardan, three in charsadda, two in Tank, one in Khyber, three in Haripur tehsils and two tehsils of Kohat district. PTI in these seven districts lost a total 16 tehsil chairmanship seats to opposition.
The ECP initial results show PTI lost 90 per cent seats of the tehsil councils in the aforementioned districts to its staunch political opposition Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Fazal (JUI-F).
A close contest was expected among the PTI, JUI-F and ANP but it proved to be a one-sided affair in the end.
These districts were strongholds of the PTI where it had won majority national assembly and provincial assembly seats in the last general elections.
The results of the local government elections in most districts are indicating that the ongoing failed economic policies, high inflation and increasing prices of essential commodities are causing heavy damages to the PTI vote bank in the province. Political observers claimed discontent workers had played an important role in the fall in PTI votes in KP.
They said that the JUI-F’s margin of victory is not the result of its increased votes but the result of the PTI’s decline.
In the upcoming general elections too KP will be the real battleground between PTI and JUI-F, as it will decide who forms the next government in the province.
So far, PTI has obtained chairmanship of 12 tehsil councils. JUI-F has won two more tehsil councils in KP and the number of its seats reached 17 in KP. In the provincial capital, JUI-F succeeded on four seats and PTI on only one seat. PTI has only won tehsil Hassan-Khel chairman seat. ANP has also won only one seat in district Peshawar.
In KP local body polls held on Sunday, the provincial election commission has so far released 47 names of the winning candidates in the category of tehsil council chairman.
The ECP has also canceled polls in three tehsils of Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu districts due to poor law and order situation.
Additionally, the poll results are also awaiting for two tehsil councils in district Khyber, one in Mohmand, one DI.Khan and two in Bajaur.
In Peshawar, Haji Zubair Ali, JUI-F candidate has secured over 11,000 lead over the PTI candidate Rizwan Bangash. So far, the JUI-F candidate has obtained 62000 votes against 50600 votes of the PTI candidate. The ECP has withheld results for Peshawar mayorship after the postponement of polling in polling stations.
