ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The party-based local bodies elections were conducted in 42 cantonment areas across the country on Saturday after 17 years.
The polling ended at 05:00 pm and now the process of vote counting is in progress.
A total of 1,151 candidates including 541 political parties’ candidates and 610 independents were contesting the elections for 199 seats in the cantonment boards of the country, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The ECP said that 1.87 million registered voters exercised their voting rights in the cantonments board elections.
There are 18 political parties which have fielded five or more candidates for these elections like Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has fielded 137 candidates in four provinces, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) 89, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) 74, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) 27 each, Awami National Party (ANP) 13, MMA 9 and Awami Muslim League (AML) 7 candidates.
As many as 1,225 polling stations were set up in four province by the ECP to hold cantonment board elections while 130 polling stations were declared sensitive, the highest being 102 in Punjab.
The commission also set up an election cell at its secretariat in Islamabad to receive complaints on the polling day on Saturday. The cell will also receive preliminary results.
Meanwhile, 12,400 troops of Pakistan Army and Ranger were employed on security duty for local government elections in cantonments areas.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that troops were requisitioned by the ECP. It said that they w0uld ensure security and assist election commission in smooth conduct of elections.
