Daily Times

Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Umar Amin Gandapur is leading the mayoral polls in Dera Ismail Khan, according to the initial vote count, a private TV channel reported.

Re-polling was held in 13 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) districts on Sunday to complete the first phase of the local government elections, which were marred by violence and rigging allegations on December 19. The Election of Pakistan (ECP) had ordered repolling in several areas.

On Sunday, the polling remained largely peaceful barring a few reports of violence in different areas.Polling continued from 9am to 5pm without any major incident. In BakaKhel, the voting began half an hour late and voters were allowed to cast ballots until 5:30pm.

In at least 23 tehsils at selected polling stations, voters cast ballots for the elections of tehsil chairpersons, or mayors, and dozens of neighbourhood and village councillors.At least three tehsils are electing their mayors or chairpersons, including the hotly contested Dera Ismail Khan. The other two are BakaKhel in Bannu, and DarraAdamkhel.

In Dera Ismail Khan, unofficial results from 74 pollings stations have been declared and PTI’s Umar Amin Gandapur is leading. JamiatUlema-e-Islam Fazl’sKafeelNizami follows while Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s Faisal Karim Kundi stands in third place.

The election for the city mayor was postponed after the Awami National Party (ANP) candidate was shot dead a day before the polls in December.

The contest received that spotlight after political parties launched their bigwigs. PPP fielded Faisal Karim Kundi, the former deputy speaker of the National Assembly and ANP announced its support for Kundi.

In DarraAdamkhel, the ECP ordered repolling on all the polling stations.

Another key tehsil to see repolling is BakaKhel, where PTI’s KP Transport Minister Shah Mohammad and his son were accused of attacking a polling station. ECP had disqualified both of them. The Islamabad High Court upturned the disqualification of Shah Mohammad but upheld the decision about his son Mamun Rasheed, who could not run for BakaKhel tehsil chairmanship.

In other tehsils, the repolling may or may not change the result of tehsil council chairperson elections. In some areas, a large number of neighbourhood and village councils are going to the polls again. This is the reason that several candidates who had returned successful challenged the repolling orders.

On Sunday, there were isolated incidents of violence, though the polls remain largely peaceful.In Karak’sDabliLawaghar area, a woman set the ballot box on fire.Karak Deputy Commissioner said the woman first set light to her ballot paper and then pushed it inside the ballot box, which caught fire.Some reports claim at least two ballot boxes were set on fire.

KP Inspector General of Police told journalists that 101 people were detained for creating a law and order situation.He said that at least 20,000 police personnel were deployed at polling stations undergoing a repoll.