FAISALABAD, Aug 26: Owing to a lengthy counting process and lack of required infrastructure, the local deputy election commissioner and returning officers could not compile results of the local polls till the filing of this report on Friday evening.

Assistant election commissioner Abdul Majeed said that the results of more than two dozen union councils of Jaranwala, Tandlianwala and Samundari towns were still awaited.

He said the results were being sent to the local election commission office through district returning officers which were promptly being transmitted to the provincial election commission headquarters in Lahore.

According to information gathered through official and unofficial sources, PML-backed candidates have won a majority of seats in Jaranwala, Samundari and Tandlianwala, while in Chak Jhumra town over 90 per cent panels backed by the ruling party emerged victorious. In the remaining four urban-cum-rural towns — Lyallpur, Iqbal, Jinnah and Madina — the panels supported by the PML-N and the PPP clinched about 55 per cent seats, while 10 per cent independent panels also returned successful. The remaining seats were won by the ruling PML.

A major upset was witnessed in the UC-240 where Irfan Cheema, a nephew of federal textile minister Musthaq Ahmad and a son of former city nazim Mumtaz Ali Cheema, faced a defeat at the hands of ARD’s Chaudhry Shafiq Gujjar. A number of former UC nazims also lost.

PPP MPA Riaz Shahid’s son Shakil Shahid also lost to a PML nominee. Former mayor Malik Ashraf won from the UC-183 by defeating former nazim fielded by the PML-N.

PML MNA Asim Nazir, nominated for the top slot of the city district government, claimed that the PML-backed panels had swept the Chak Jhumra town, while in Samundari, Jaranwala and Tandlianwala towns, over 80 per cent panels emerged victorious. He claimed that in Lyallpur, Madina, Iqbal and Jinnah towns about 60 per cent candidates belonging to the ruling party had won the election.

He said some 10 per cent seats in these towns were clinched by independent candidates who would also support him and PML nominees in the respective towns.

He further claimed that the PML-N and the PPP-backed candidates were rejected by the voters, and they had faced a crushing defeat owing to the systematic and organized campaign launched by his group. He said with the help of legislators, party leaders and newly-elected LB members, they would form city and town governments in the district.

On the other hand, in a joint statement, PML-N MNA Raja Nadir Pervaiz, parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Rana Sanaullah Khan, MPAs Malik Mohammad Nawaz, Shaikh Ijaz Ahmad and Begum Khalid Mansoor, ex-MNA Mian Farooq, ex-MPA Zahid Gooria and PML-N secretary-general Javed Nazir claimed that the candidates backed by their party had won most of the seats. They said they would not allow corrupt elements to grab public offices come what may.

Another PML-N faction chief Chaudhry Sher Ali, MNA Abid Sher Ali, ex-MPA Rana Afzal and city president Khwaja Islam also claimed that the panels fielded by their group had returned successful in most of the UC councils. They claimed that the PML-N, the PPP and other anti-government forces would jointly contest for the top slots.

Meanwhile, Punjab PPP secretary-general Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan and MPA Raja Riaz Ahmad blamed the government for a massive rigging in the local elections.

They claimed that despite a reign of terror and victimization, the PPP-backed candidates won almost 60 per cent seats in the district.