PESHAWAR: Independent candidates won at least 10 seats followed by Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf with five seats each in the by-elections held in 65 village and neighbourhood councils in 21 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, according to unofficial results.

According to the unofficial results, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl got three seats and the joint candidate of PML-N and PTI-P also won a seat. A woman candidate also remained successful. Polling for by-elections remained peaceful.

The seats of general councillors, youth councilors, peasant workers and women had fallen vacant for different reasons. The polling was held for the vacant seats of the lowest tier of the local bodies in Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Khyber, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Battagram, Swat, Shangla, Malakand, Dir Upper and Bajaur districts.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had set up 256 polling stations including 102 for male, 89 for female and 65 combined for the by-elections. A total of 385,835 voters used their right of franchise.

Polling for 65 village and neighbourhood councils in 21 districts held peacefully

In Peshawar, ANP candidate Asadullah won the general council seat in Surizai Bala village with 930 votes followed by Rafi Alam of PTI with 570 votes. JUI-F candidate Inayatullah was declared successful on the general seat of Regi neighbourhood council with 1,004 followed by PTI candidate with 658 votes.

PTI candidate Kashif Rehman won the general seat of Nodeh Bala neighbourhood council with 810 votes. He was followed by an independent candidate with 709 votes.

In Khyber, PTI grabbed two of the three vacant seats. Wakil Khan of PTI secured 209 votes for peasant seat in Akkakhel-Merikhel 7 of Bara while Mehmud Khan of PTI secured 224 votes for student seat.

In Landi Kotal, Pasedkhel village council, independent woman candidate Zalika Bibi won the seat by securing 656 votes. She defeated PTI candidate Naheed Bibi, who secured 343 votes.

Meanwhile, journalists in Landi Kotal held a protest after they were barred from covering the polling in Pasedkhel by the security forces posted at Charbagh Fort.

In Bajaur, polling for youth seat in Janat Shah village council was held peacefully.

In Lower Dir, PPP emerged victorious on two of the three village council seats in the local government by-elections on Sunday.

PPP candidate Abdur Rahim got 350 votes against Jamaat-i-Islami candidate Mian Shakirullah, who bagged 310 votes on a general councillor seat in Naway Kallay neighbourhood council.

Similarly, PPP candidate Engineer Hamid Shehzad with a total of 771 votes won the youth council seat in Dherai Talash village council by defeating JUI-F candidate Maulana Zeeshan Ali, who got 508 votes.

In Lal Qila Maidan village council’s general seat, PTI candidate Naveed Alam got 695 votes against his rival Tariqullah from JI, who bagged 492 votes.

The polling remained peaceful on all the 10 polling stations in the district.

In Mardan, 26 candidates on Sunday contested by-elections for 10 different vacant seats of local government.

The relevant officials of ECP said that 26 contesters including two women were in the field for the vacant seats. As per the details provided by the local office of ECP, six aspirants for two general seats and six candidates for two peasant seats were contesting polls.

The two women candidates belonging to ANP and JUI-F were in the one-to-one contest against each other.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2023