ISLAMABAD: The ruling PML-N, which celebrated the election of the mayor and deputy mayors from their party on Monday at the Jinnah Convention Centre, seems to have disappointed its workers and supporters - some because the party had selected mayoral candidates from rural areas and others because all candidates are relatives and friends of party highups.

There was a low turnout outside the convention centre though the elections were well advertised.

Some workers distributed sweets and a few others showered rose petals to celebrate the election of Sheikh Ansar Aziz as the first mayor and Mohammad Azam Khan, Chaudhry Riffat Iqbal and Syed Zeeshan Naqvi as deputy mayors of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation.

PML-N’s Sheikh Ansar Aziz’s panel got 49 votes while his opponent, PTI’s Raja Khurram Nawaz got 26. According to District Returning Officer Aleem Shahab, of a total 77 votes, 75 cast their votes.

Party activists and leaders feel like the ruling party sidelined urban areas of the federal capital while picking candidates for the seats. All three deputy mayors belong to the rural areas. Meanwhile, the new mayor, Sheikh Ansar Aziz, who was initially elected on a technocrat’s seat, is also new for party workers.

Mr Aziz, a contractor by profession, is a close friend of the prime minister’s. This fact is also of discontent for some party supporters as Mr Aziz is not the only one with close connections with party leadership.

Party activists disappointed in choice of candidates, all with close connections with party higher ups

One of the deputy mayors is a close relative of State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, another was nominated by choice of MNA Malik Abrar and yet another is a relative of bureaucrat Dr Touqeer Shah.

Dr Tariq Chaudhry joined in on the celebrations, as did Malik Abrar. The CADD minister vowed his party will strive towards making Islamabad a ‘model city’.

A local PML-N leader said: “Youth and party workers are not here to celebrate the elections because no one from the urban areas was involved in them.”

Residents of the capital also showed no interest in the mayoral elections, because the outcome of the polls was already known.

A Bhara Kahu local outside the convention centre, Mohammad Rahim, called the elections ‘one sided’ as the ruling party had won the majority of seats in the first round of elections.

“That is why you cannot see the usual hustle and bustle,” he reasoned.

PML-N was in a strong position to claim all four seats in the second round of local government polls because it had secured 50 seats, almost double of PTI’s 27.

Supporters of the Imran Khan-led PTI, which has a strong voters’ bank in the urban parts of the federal capital, also did not show up at the convention centre.

PTI leader Ali Awan explained: “We didn’t ask our supporters to come here today because we had no direct role in today’s elections.”

In the final round of the local government elections, the PTI had fielded Ali Awan, Fouzia Shahid and Raja Zulqarnain for the seats of deputy mayors.

After the elections, Khurram Nawaz said: “We are accepting the results and participated in the polls only for the supremacy of democracy. Otherwise, we knew we did not have as many votes as the ruling party”.

He added that PTI will play an active role as the opposition. “We will support the PML-N only when it will take good steps for the well being of the residents of Islamabad amd will protect the rights of the people of the city”, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016