Polling ends in Sindh’s 14 districts, vote count underway

KARACHI: Polling in the 14 districts of Sindh for local government (LG) in the first phase has ended and the counting of votes is currently underway, sources reported on Sunday.
The polling began at 8 am and continued until 5 pm without any break. According to the ECP, the voters who are inside the polling stations can cast their votes.
Polling was held in Sukkur, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, Jacobabad, Qambar Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Sanghar, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Ghotki and Tharparkar.
As many as 21,298 candidates hailing from political parties including PTI, JUI-F, PPP, MQM-P, GDA, independents, and others are vying for the 5,331 seats of the local governments in the districts. 946 candidates have already secured their seats without a fight.
As per the ECP records, as many as 9,290 polling stations are being established in the 14 districts with 1,985 declared highly sensitive and 3,448 declared sensitive. More than 100,000 staffers are performing their duties to hold the elections.
The Sindh government had finalized a security plan on Tuesday to ensure the law and order situation amid the first phase of the LG elections in Sindh.
A total of 1985 polling stations have been termed very sensitive, 3448 as sensitive and 3291 as normal in 4 divisions of Sindh. Over 26,000 policemen will be deployed across polling stations to maintain law and order.
The CM Sindh had said that the government would not compromise on security and Law and order. Carrying of any kind of weapons will be prohibited on the polling day under section 144, the CM added.
The CM ordered all commissioners to take all political parties into confidence regarding the law and order situation. All power feeders will also be advised to provide an uninterrupted power supply on polling day, the CM added.-DNA