ISLAMABAD: As many as 4,403 candidates have filed nomination papers for the upcoming local government elections in the federal capital scheduled to take place on Dec 31.

According to details, 1,074 individuals have filed nomination papers as joint candidates for chairman and vice chairman for the total 101 union councils while 1,945 have submitted nominations for 606 general seats-- six each for every union council.

As many as 546 candidates intend to contest for 202 reserved seats for women, 344 for 101 seats reserved for youth, and 348 and 146 for 101 reserved seats for labours, peasants and 146 for 101 seats for non-Muslims.

A preliminary list of candidates will be displayed on Nov 14. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be carried out from Nov 15 to Nov 18 and appeals against acceptance and rejection of the nomination papers can be filed from Nov 21 to Nov 23. The appeals will be decided by Nov 30.

The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers will be Nov 30, while election symbols will be allotted on Dec 1. Polling will be held on Dec 31.

A total of 984,877 voters will cast their votes for the elections of chairman, vice chairman, councillors and lady councillors in 101 union councils in the federal capital. They include 518,193 male and 466,284 female voters.

All the major political parties including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) have started a rigorous election campaign.

The local governments in Islamabad completed their five-year term in February 2021 and under the law the elections were supposed to be held within four months after expiry of their term.

The polls were previously slated to be held on Dec 24, but were rescheduled on the request of the Christian community.

This was the third change made in the poll schedule. The ECP had earlier set July 17 as the date for LG polls in Islamabad, but in a surprising move withdrew it citing ‘technical deficiencies’ as the reason.

Later, July 31 was fixed as the election date, but this too had to be retracted as the commission agreed to carry out a new delimitation exercise in the federal territory for an increased number of union councils --from 50 to 101.

The decision came after the PML-N and PPP approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) pleading to extend the date for the local bodies polls.

In his petition, PML-N leader Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, through his counsel urged the court to direct the election watchdog to increase the number of union councils in Islamabad and to hold elections after fresh delimitation.

The last elections witness a hot contest between PML-N and PTI while PPP failed to secure any seat. The polls held in 2015 were won by PML-N and subsequently Sheikh Ansr Aziz was elected as the first mayor of Islamabad.

However, the MCI failed to deliver as it could not get due patronage of then the ruling party, the PML-N.

The budding MCI was not given any funding from the federal government nor could have framed financial rules for proper disposal of works.

Later, PTI came to power but it too did not pay any heed to MCI financial issues. Resultantly, the first ever local government completed its tenure in February last year even without paying due honorarium to the UC chairmen. On last day in their office, the UC chairmen were seen trying to get honorarium but to no avail.

Throughout five years, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and MCI remained at loggerhead as MCI was an offshoot of the CDA.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2022