KARACHI: Amid the long delay in local body elections in Sindh’s Karachi and Hyderabad divisions, more than 30 candidates died while waiting for the polls to be held.
According to the report of JEE News, elections in 45 constituencies will now be held at a later date.
The second phase of local body elections has been repeatedly postponed from July 2022 for one reason or another and now it has been rescheduled for January 15.
704 candidates were elected unopposed.
Meanwhile, out of 19,867 candidates for various seats in 16 districts of Karachi and Hyderabad, 704 were elected unopposed as chairman, vice-chairman and general members of union committees, town councils and district councils.
Data from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) shows that five general members and one chairman candidate won in Malir, East and Kemari districts of Karachi, while the remaining general members won in nine districts of Hyderabad. , won various seats including Town Councilor and District Member. .
According to ECP, out of 16 deceased candidates from Karachi division, half had submitted their nomination papers for the posts of Chairman and Vice Chairman and the rest were contesting for the seats of General Member.
Citing official data, the publication said one general member candidate died in district Malir, and one candidate each for chairman, vice-chairman and general member in Korangi district, while two general members died in district East. Candidates passed away.
Moreover, one chairman candidate died in District South, 4 chairman and vice chairman candidates died in District Central and West districts, while 4 chairman and 4 general member candidates died in Kemari district. Seventeen other candidates died in Hyderabad division.
Second step
The ECP had told the Sindh government that the second phase of local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad would be held on July 24, 2022, but then postponed them due to torrential rains and consequent floods in the province.
The electoral body rescheduled the LG polls on August 28, but for the same reason they were postponed again.
The commission said most of the polling stations were made inaccessible to voters.
On 18 October, the ECP rescheduled the polls to 23 October, but the provincial government demanded that they be postponed by three months as it deployed police in flood-hit areas, forcing them to close polling stations. was unable to provide the required level of security.
After repeated delays, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) approached the Sindh High Court, which on November 15 asked the ECP to announce the date of local elections within 15 days. directed by
On November 22, the ECP announced January 15 as the new date.
