ISLAMABAD: Candidates of major political parties as well as independents, contesting the local government (LG) in the federal capital, have kickstarted vigorous campaign to garner support of voters.
With local government (LG) elections in the capital just a few weeks away, leaders of major political parties – the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – are running a rousing election campaign.
In 2015, elections were held in 50 union councils (UCs). This time, the government increased the number of UCs from 50 to 101.
In the upcoming elections, over 984,477 voters including 518,193 male and 466,284 female voters would cast their votes to elect their local representatives for the next five years.
A total of 1,773 nomination papers out of some 4,403 aspirants were accepted by the relevant Returning Officers (ROs) for local government elections in the federal capital.
The statistics shared by the Election Commission of Pakistan said 1,074 individuals as joint candidates filed nomination papers for chairman and vice-chairman for a total of 101 union councils, while 1,945 submitted nominations for 606 general seats, six each for every union council.
The ECP has appointed 15 Monitoring Officers (MOs), including a District Monitoring Officer (DMO) to ensure complete compliance with the code of conduct by keeping a close vigil on the canvassing of all candidates and taking necessary action against the violators.
District Commissioner Gujranwala Tanveerul Hassan has already been appointed as the DMO to monitor the campaign.
While 14 monitoring officers are also closely monitor the election campaign of political parties and candidates in local bodies polls in Islamabad.
