Polling underway for cantonment board elections across Pakistan

Voting is underway in 41 cantonment boards across Pakistan, with 1,560 candidates contesting against each other in 206 wards.

The polling began at 8am and will continue until 5pm without any interruptions.

Seven candidates have been elected unopposed so far. The election will not take place in Kamra Cantonment Board, whiile polls have been postponed in one ward each in Rawalpindi and Pano Aqil.

Most of the candidates — 684 — are independent, while as many as 876 belong to different political parties. The ruling PTI has fielded the most candidates — 183.

Similarly, the PML-N has fielded 144, PPP 113, JI 104, the outlawed TLP 83, MQM-P 42, PSP 35, PML-Q 34, and JUI-F 25 candidates.

Meanwhile, in 20 of Punjab's cantonment boards, four candidates — two each from Multan and Attock — have been elected unopposed, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said.

Mohammad Salman Iqbal, Saima Aashiq, Mohammad Yaqub Nasir, and Mohammad Sadiq have been elected unopposed as councilors, the ECP said.

Therefore, of the 114 of Punjab's cantonment boards, polling will take place in 110, the Election Commission said.

Meanwhile, in Kamra Cantonment Board, no candidate has filed nomination papers in all four of the wards and therefore, polling will not take place there.

It is pertinent to mention here that not a single woman candidate is contesting elections in Lahore. However, 357 polling stations have been set up for 606,628 voters in the city. 269 candidates are contesting elections for 20 wards in Lahore. Out of the total, 241 polling stations have been declared sensitive and 44 most sensitive.

As many as 923 candidates will take part in elections across Punjab.

In Quetta, 35 candidates are contesting for five wards. 31 polling stations have been sut up for 28,945 voters. In total, 15,346 male and 13,599 female voters will exercise their democratic right in the city today.

In Karachi, pollling is underway across 42 wards of six cantonment boards. A total 350 candidates are contesting elections in the metropolis. The administration has set up 288 polling statlions for the polling process in the city.

Meanwhile, elections are underway in 10 wards each in Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sargodha and Abbottabad and seven wards of Multan and in other cities.

Just two days before the elections, tension prevailed in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area of Karachi after members of two political parties — the PTI and the PSP — clashed Friday night.

The incident took place when workers of the PTI and the PSP were held rallies ahead of the upcoming elections.