Salman Yousafzai

A total of 37,700 candidates are contesting in the upcoming local government (LG) polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

LG polls in KP’s 17 districts are scheduled for December 19.

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) data showed that more than 2,500 candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers for polls.

For 66 positions of tehsil councils and mayors, a total of 689 candidates are in the run.

The difference between chairman and mayor

There is little difference between a mayor and tehsil council chairman under the KP LG (Amendment) 2021. The candidate elected to lead a tehsil is called a chairman whereas the head of tehsil where a divisional headquarters is located is a mayor.

In provincial capital is divided into seven tehsils of Shah Alam, Mathra, Chamkani, Badhbher, Pihstakhara, Hassan Khel and city.

The winning candidate on the city tehsil will be the mayor of city tehsil while six others chairman of tehsil councils of provincial capital.

A total of 19282 candidates are in the run for 7146 general seats of village council and neighborhood councils (VC&NC) across the province.

Every VC&NC will elect three general councilors. The councilor securing highest number of votes among three general councilors of every VC&NC will be elected member to the tehsil council.

Besides 3905 candidates are contesting for 2382 women seats, 7513 vying for 2382 labor and peasant seats. 6081 candidates are in the run for youth seats.

In addition to this, 282 minority candidates are also contesting on reserved seats in different parts of the province.

Colors of LG ballot paper

ECP has prepared six ballot papers of different colors for the convenience of voters.

ECP KP spokesperson Sohail Ahmed told TNN there will be white ballot paper for mayor or tehsil chairman seats while gray for general councilor and pink for women.

Besides, there will be light green ballot paper for labor peasants, yellow for youth and brown for minorities.

ECP spokespersons said that stamping more than one candidate on a ballot paper will invalidate the vote.

ECP said the even election of three general councilors on a single VC&NC does not mean stamping on three candidates names.

The ballot papers will have the candidates’ names in English and Urdu while party candidates will have their electoral symbol in front of their names.

Printing of ballot papers

ECP spokesperson said that currently the printing of ballot papers for LG polls was in progress in Lahore and Islamabad.

He said that they were printing 100 million papers for the first phase of the LG polls.

KP Election Commissioner said that the ballot papers were being printed on party basis. He expressed his satisfaction over polls preparations.

How many people will exercise their right to vote?

LB polls in 17 districts of province are scheduled for December 19. Each village and neighborhood council in the province would elect three councilors on general seats, a minority, a labor/farmer, a woman and a youth councilor.

The polling would elect chairman of 66 tehsil councils and representatives on 2382 neighborhood and village councils.

ECP data shows that a total of 1.9 million registered voters for seven tehsil and 357 village and neighborhood councils in Peshawar. Besides are there are 1.09 million voters in Charsadda, 0.849 million in Noswshera and 0.596 million in Khyber.

There are 0.328 million voters in Mohamand, 1.4 million in Mardan and 1 million in Swabi. Number of voters in Kohat stand at 0.635 million, 0.470 million in Karak and 0.314 million in Hangu.

In addition to this Bannu has 0.676 million voters, Lakki Marwat 0.494 million and Dera Ismail Khan 0.839 million voters.  Tank  district has 0.217 million voters, Haripur 0.714 million, Buner 0.518 million while Bajaur has 0.623 million voters.