KARACHI: Polling for the local body (LB) by-elections in 24 districts of Sindh, including Karachi, was held on Sunday.
The polling process continued from 8am to 5pm without any break.
A total of 434 candidates are in the fray for elections on 63 seats of different categories. Polling will be held on 11 union council (UC) chairman, vice chairman and 15 ward member seats of the Karachi Division.
Candidates of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are contesting in the LB by-elections, while Muttahida Qaumi Movement- Pakistan (MQM-P) has boycotted the local government polls.
A total of 449 polling stations and 1,586 polling booths were set up for the by-elections. Not a single polling station was ‘normal’ as 292 were classified as highly sensitive and 157 as sensitive.
CCTV cameras were also been installed in the highly sensitive polling stations while more than 7,000 police officials were performing election duty.
Moreover, the total number of male and female voters was 690,295.
In the Karachi Division, polling was held in UC 4 New Karachi, UC 6 North Nazimabad and UC 13 New Karachi included in Central District, UC 2, UC 3 Shah Latif Town, UC 8 Landhi in the Korangi District.
By-elections were held on one seat each in Jacobabad, Kashmore and Shikarpur. Whereas, polling was held for two seats each in Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur
It is pertinent to note that candidates have won unopposed in 27 seats of different categories and no candidate has submitted nomination papers in three local body seats.
