'Wrong candidate selection' major cause for PTI's loss, concedes PM Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday conceded defeat in the first phase of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections 2021, admitting that wrong candidate selection was a major cause for the PTI's shock defeat in the recent polls.

The prime minister's tweet comes a day after Opposition parties, particularly the JUI-F, took an unassailable lead in Khyber Pakhtunkwa's ongoing local body elections, leaving the PTI behind, according to unofficial results.

The ruling party could not grab even a single mayor seat out of the four. The PTI could only manage to win one tehsil in Peshawar out of six tehsils.

"PTI made mistakes in 1st phase of KP LG elections & paid the price. Wrong candidate selection was a major cause. From now on I will personally be overseeing PTI's LG election strategy in 2nd phase of KP LG elections & LG elections across Pak. InshaAllah PTI will come out stronger," tweeted the prime minister.

In the 64 tehsil council unofficial results obtained so far, the JUI-F has emerged victorious in 16 tehsil council seats while the PTI has won in 14.

Independent candidates have won 10, ANP six, PML-N three, Jamaat-e-Islami two, and Tehreek-e-Istiqlal in the tehsil council elections.

A day earlier, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz said that the PTI didn't do too bad in the first phase of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections.

PTI has learned a lot from the ongoing local government elections in KP and the party will use this experience to prepare for the next elections, Faraz had said.

"We have been given a chance to change our strategy and eliminate our shortcomings," Faraz had said while expressing his views over the results of the LG polls where the Opposition party JUI-F emerged victorious, bagging the majority of the seats.

The Opposition parties, particularly JUI-F, have taken an unassailable lead in KP's ongoing local body elections, leaving PTI behind, according to unofficial results.

According to Faraz, PTI's performance in the contest was still not that bad.

"The reason behind PTI's failure in the election is that most of PTI's candidates contested against aspirants of their own party," the minister had said.

He had said that another reason was that some people were resentful over the current wave of inflation.