KARACHI: More than 4.6 million voters in eight districts of upper Sindh will vote for over 10,000 candidates vying for 2,333 constituencies falling in various tiers of municipal units in the first phase of the local government elections on Saturday (today).

Three districts of Sukkur division and five districts of Larkana division have been marked for the first of the three-phased elections in the province.

According to official figures shared by the provincial election commission, a total of 5,193 candidates are in the run for 950 constituencies in Sukkur division. Of them, 1,558 candidates will contest on 392 seats in Sukkur district, 2,664 candidates on 111 seats in Khairpur, and 971 candidates on 447 seats in Ghotki district.

In Larkana division, a total of 4,894 candidates will vie for 1,383 seats. They included 625 candidates for 101 seats in Jacobabad district, 609 candidates for 220 seats in Kashmore, 1,357 candidates for 466 seats in Kamber, 1,363 candidates for 314 seats in Larkana and 940 candidates for 282 seats in Shikarpur.

There are 54 town committees — 28 in Sukkur and 26 in Larkana — in the two divisions. Khairpur district has 20 town committees, the maximum number of town committees in any of the eight districts, while Jacobabad has the least number of town committees that is only three.

Also, there are 222 wards for the 28 town committees of Sukkur division and 163 wards for the 26 town committees of Larkana division.

Each of the eight districts has one district council with 187 union councils in Sukkur division and 239 in Larkana division. In all, there will be 4,031 polling stations including 678 of them being marked as sensitive from a security point of view.

Similarly, there are 26 union committees in the city of Sukkur and 20 union committees in urban Larkana.

Each of the two cities will have a municipal corporation having the elected chairmen of the union committees as its members.

Voters

In all, 4,618,512 registered voters — 2,092,908 women and 2,525,604 men — will exercise their right of franchise in the first phase of the local government elections.

District-wise voters’ count is: Khairpur (930,343), Larkana (622,586), Ghotki (614,382), Sukkur (569,644), Kamber (547,857), Shikarpur (523,827), Jacobabad (419,634) and Kashmore (390,239). Unsurprisingly, the number of female voters does not exceed the number of male voters in any of the eight districts.

Voters residing in the limits of town committees and municipal committees will cast one vote while voters in union committee will cast two votes — one for the union committee chairman and vice chairman and another for the ward councillor. Voters residing in the limits of union councils would cast three votes one each to elect district councillor, chairman’s and vice chairman’s panel and ward councillor of union council.

Security

The Sindh government will deploy over 31,000 police officials besides the 80 army troops and 2,219 Rangers personnel for election duty in the eight districts.

The army troops will be deployed at sensitive polling stations in Nara and Kingi areas of Khairpur district only.

The number of most sensitive polling stations in Larkana district are 61, while 173 other polling stations are sensitive.

Kamber-Shahdadkot district has 155 most sensitive and 131 sensitive polling stations. In Shikarpur district, the number of sensitive and most sensitive polling stations are 255 and 81, respectively. Jacobabad has 39 most sensitive and 273 sensitive polling stations. Similarly, Kashmore has 90 sensitive and 114 most sensitive polling stations. In Sukkur, there are 130 sensitive and 184 most sensitive polling station. Ghotki has 177 sensitive and 69 most sensitive polling stations. In Khairpur, however, there are as many as 328 sensitive and 350 most sensitive polling stations.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2015

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