Preparations to hold by-election on the vacant Provincial Assembly seat PK-22 Bajaur on July 11 are in the final stages.
In this regard, a meeting was held in which Provincial Election Commissioner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shamshad Khan reviewed preparations.
The meeting was attended by Director Elections Asif Ali Yasin, Director IT Abdul Qadir, Deputy Director Falak Naz, Deputy Director Muhammad Anwar Zeb, Deputy Director Asif Khan Khattak, Deputy Director Zaheer Ahmed, spokesperson for the Provincial Election Commissioner Sohail Ahmed, and other officials.
During the meeting, the Provincial Election Commissioner was briefed on the preparations and was informed a total of 12 candidates were contesting in the PK-22 Bajaur by-election.
These candidates include Rahat Ullah from Sunni Ittehad Council, Saddam Hussain from Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM), Abid Khan from Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Abdullah from PPP Parliamentarians, Muhammad Nisar from Awami National Party, and seven independent candidates.
The meeting was told that training of the District Returning Officer (DRO) and District Monitoring Officer (DMO) has already been completed while the training of polling staff will be completed from July 1 to July 7.
A total of over 179,000 voters will exercise their right to vote, with 99,038 male voters and 79,972 female voters.
Adequate security arrangements have been made, and a control room will be established in the office of the Provincial Election Commissioner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to address complaints. The election campaign is being strictly monitored and it was informed that the District Monitoring Officer had summoned the Chairman of Sub-Division Nawagai, Khalil-ur-Rehman, and issued a warning for violating the code of conduct. The Provincial Election Commissioner has instructed to coordinate with the district administration to ensure the polling process is peaceful and transparent.