Elections held peacefully amid tight security in Hyderabad

Author: Our Correspondent

HYDERABAD: 577 candidates contested for 42 national and provincial assemblies’ seats in nine districts of Hyderabad amid stringent security measures across the province on Wednesday.

There were 4.74 million registered voters, including 2.59m male and 2.14m female.

Eight district returning officers (DROs), 42 returning officers (ROs) and 84 assistant returning officers performed their duties to conduct elections transparently.

There were a total of 4,297 polling stations, including 774 declared as ‘most sensitive’ and 1,712 as ‘sensitive’ in the division.

Furthermore, 850 polling stations were established in Hyderabad, 361 in Matiari, 283 in Tando Mohammad Khan, 319 in Tando Allahyar, 658 in Dadu, 457 in Jamshoro, 391 in Thatta, 327 in Sujawal and 651 in Badin.

Despite of the fact that more than a dozen candidates contested for every seat, the real fight was observed between candidates of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), particularly for three national and six provincial assembly seats.

For NA-225, PPP candidate Syed Tariq Hussain contested against PPP-Workers candidate Naheed Khan and PTI candidate Khawand Bux Jehejo.

For NA-226, MQM candidate Sabir Hussain contested against PPP candidate Ali Ahmed, PTI candidate Jamshed Sheikh and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) candidate Rashid Khilji.

For NA-227, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) candidate Sahebzada Abdul Khair fought against MQM candidate Salahuddin, PTI candidate Hakim Khan and PSP candidate Abdul Rashid Arain.

For six provincial assembly seats, stiff competitions were observed between several candidates of PPP, MQM and GDA.

Except for a cracker attack on Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek’s (AAT) NA-226 candidate Faisal Nadeem Shaikh, and a clash between MQM-P and MMA workers in Phuleli area of Hyderabad, no unfortunate incident occurred in the division of Hyderabad.

In 2013 elections, Pakistan Peoples Party clinched 31 out of the total 41 The political parties which contested from the platform of 10-party alliance, and later rebranded as the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), secured second highest number of seats – eight NA and 15 PS – from five districts of Hyderabad. PTI candidates could not win any seat in Sindh in the year 2013.

Published in Daily Times, July 26^th 2018.