Pakistani Local Bodies Elections Polling StartsPolling started in the 18 districts of the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, in the first phase of Pakistan's local bodies elections Sunday at 8:00 am as scheduled.With the start of the polling, the nation entered the first phase of devolution of power plan, pledged by Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf. A total of nine million voters will have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in the 18 districts. The process of elections all over the country will be completed in July 2001. It was reported that candidates in the run for local bodies elections in the 18 districts had been campaigning vigorously with enthusiastic response from people in the last few weeks and on Eid ul Fitr as well. According to the data provided by the Election Commission (EC), 21,890 candidates are in the field for 7,648 Muslim general seats of 956 Union Councils. There are eight Muslim general seats in each union council. One minority seat has been reserved for each union council. A total of 516 minority candidates filed their nomination papers. Chief Election Commissioner, Justice Abdul Qadeer Chaudhary said that the procedure for collection and communication of results has been finalized. It has been decided that preliminary results of the local government elections for all categories will be declared from the central control room set up in the election commission secretariat in Islamabad. However, the district returning officers/returning officers will release results at their level to media. |
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