QUETTA: Balochistan held local government (LG) elections held on Sunday in 32 districts, except Quetta and Lasbela, for the first time in nine years.
As per unofficial and initial results, independent candidates are leading and have won 1,058 seats. They are followed by Jamiat Ulema-e -Islam (JUI) securing 98 seats and the ruling Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) bagged 71 seats.
The Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) won 39 seats, National Party (NP) secured 26 seats, Balochistan National Party (Mengal) bagged 18 seats while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) bagged 10 and six seats respectively.
The polling, which started at 8am, continued till 5pm on Sunday without any interruption with the process largely remaining smooth and peaceful. One person was killed during an exchange of fire between two rival groups in the Noshki district. Over three dozen people sustained injuries in clashes between rival groups in various parts of the province.
Over 17,000 candidates were contesting the local bodies’ elections across the province. Strict security measures were in place in all 32 districts of Balochistan to maintain law and order situation.
The provincial government had declared over 2,000 polling stations sensitive. Besides levies and police, the authorities had also deployed the frontier corps to avoid any untoward incident. Around 1,584 councilors have been elected unopposed.
It may be mentioned here that except for the Quetta and Lasbella, and some areas of Zhob and Pishin, LG elections are being held across the province.
The ECP had delayed the elections in the above-mentioned areas because of flaws in the delimitations and delays in the formation of wards for councillors.
ECP had declared over 2,000 polling stations sensitive and the provincial government has enhanced security to avert any untoward incident during polling.
