Polling began in multiple districts of Sindh including Karachi for by-elections on vacant seats of the province’s local bodies on Sunday.
Voting will continue from 8 am to 5 pm. Thousands of policemen are on duty to ensure the security of elections with a quick-response force on alert to deal with any untoward incident.
Elections are being organized in 16 UCs of Karachi, where at least 42 polling stations have been declared as highly sensitive and 72 as sensitive.
Elsewhere in Sindh, a total of 209 polling stations have been set up.
Karachi:
Candidates would be contesting for seats in UC 3, two vice chairmen, and four wards. It is expected that as many as 206,686 would exercise their right to vote.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab is contesting from the Saddar Town seat while Deputy Mayor Salman Abdullah Murad is contesting from Gadap Town UC.
In UC 13 Sadar Town, three candidates will be contesting for the chairman’s seat: PPP’s Murtaza Wahab, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Noorul Salam, and TLP’s Sikander Agar.
Moreover, PPP’s Saifullah, Mohammad Zahid of PTI, and PML-N leader Shahid Iqbal will be competing for the chairman seat from Kemari district UC 3 Maripur.
In Malir district UC 7 Gadap, PPP leader Salman Abdullah Murad, PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Jokhio, JI’s Mohammad Ayub Khaskheli, and TLP’s Saalim Ahmed would contest the chairman’s seat.
PPP’s Saleem Memon, PTI leader Mohibullah, and Maqbool Ahmed of TLP will be contesting for the seat of vice chairman from Malir district UC 7 Gadap.
Four candidates are up for the vice chairman seat in the South district UC 12 Sadar Town. They are PPP’s Hamid Hussain, PTI leader Muhammad Tahir, PML-N’s Gulwaiz Khan, and Syed Obaidullah Shah of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Wahab was elected unopposed from Union Council 8 Ibrahim Hydari. Polling for the by-elections will be held in 209 polling stations in Sindh.
Sukkur and Ghotki:
A total of 12 seats had been left vacant in Sukkur. However, candidates in six of these seats were elected unopposed while the remaining six will hold polls on Sunday.
In two vacant seats in Ghotki, one has been filled by an unopposed candidate while votes will be cast on the other seat (UC-I).
Khairpur and Jacobabad:
A total of four general counselor seats including two municipal committees will hold polls on Sunday. In Jacobabad, the lone vacant seat in UC-31 was won unopposed by a PPP candidate.
Larkana:
A PPP candidate was elected unopposed in district council Larkana after the independent candidate contesting against him withdrew his papers. The other seat in Tando Allahyar’s municipal committee elections is being contested between a PPP and an independent candidate.
Benazirabad:
Out of three vacant seats in Benazirabad, two have already been won unopposed by PPP candidates. Polls are underway on a general seat in the town committee.
Nowshero Feroze:
Candidates from the PPP won all four vacant seats in the district unopposed.
