MUZAFFARABAD: The 2nd phase of the local bodies elections in Poonch Division has begun here on Saturday with 3859 candidates contesting the polls.
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According to details gathered by MM News, some 5,000 armed troops of civil armed forces including Punjab Constabulary (PC) and Frontier Constabulary (FC) have been made available to assist local civil administration in 2nd and 3rd phases of the polls in Poonch and Mirpur Divisions respectively on December 03 and 08.
Raja Muhammad Farooq Niaz Khan, Senior Member Azad Jammu Kashmir State Election Commission was quoted by state news service as saying that the LB elections in Azad Jammu Kashmir State were being held on a political party-basis. However, independent candidates are also in run to contest the polls to get into the civic bodies of all categories across the AJK.
According to Raja Muhammad Afooq Niaz Khan, Pakistan army shall also be available as a quick response force to combat any eventuality.
It may be mentioned that in first phase, the local bodies elections had been held in Muzaffarabad division on November 27, in a free, fair, and peaceful manner.
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In all three districts of Mirpur division including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher districts, a total of 12 lakh, 32 thousand and 79 registered voters will go to exercise their right of franchise to elect the local bodies representatives in the 3rd phase of the polls on December 08.
These registered voters include 5,63,016 in Kotli district; 36, 6043 in Mirpur district and 30, 3020 registered voters in Bhimbher district, Sr. Member AJK EC said.
Raja Farooq Niaz continued that a total of 1,026 polling stations are being set up in Kotli district; 625 in Mirpur district and 538 in Bhimbher district respectively with 1602, 924, and 850 polling booths in the three above districts respectively to facilitate both male and female registered voters to use their right of vote to elect their civic bodies members, he added.
The Sr. Member AJK EC stated that in the Poonch division, a total of 10 lakh, 16 thousand and 889 registered voters would go to the polls in 2nd phase of the LB elections to be held on Saturday December 03.
“A total of 1,859 polling stations containing 2697 polling booths are being set up in all 06 districts of Poonch Division including Poonch, Bagh, Sudhanoti and Haveili districts – wherein 558 polling stations for male , 542 for female voters and 762 joint polling stations have been set up to facilitate the registered voters to use their right of vote in the polls.
Raja Farooq Niaz said that polling will start at 8.00 a.m in the morning and will continue till 5.00 p.m without any pause.
