Bhutto’s PPP set to win Sindh’s local government poll hit by violence

By Staff Reporter

KARACHI: At least two people were killed, and several dozens were wounded on Sunday after rival political parties contesting first phase of local government elections in Sindh fired guns and scuffled, police said.
The election is seen as barometer of the fortunes of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which helps topple former prime minister Imran Khan’s government in April this year.
PPP was leading the poll in almost all constituencies. Local media reported 885 out of 946 representatives elected unopposed in the polls.
Local news channels run footages of scuffled between supports of Khan’s PTI part and PPP, gun fires and bullet-ridden bodies. Police were sent to calm the violence.
Provincial police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon said scuffles broke out in only 40 of the 9,000 polling stations and “the scale of violence was nominal, as the incidents were reported at only a few polling stations”.
Reports of missing electoral symbols on ballot papers, male presiding officers deputed at women’s polling stations, and incomplete electoral rolls were received from several polling stations.
The opposition parties in Sindh called for intervention from the ‘top authorities’ of the country to declare the first phase of local government elections in four divisions of the province null and void accusing the ruling PPP of rigging
Local media reported that 11 polling staffers were kidnapped from the polling station in Kandhkot district. A group of armed men entered the polling station and abducted 11 polling staffers including a presiding officer and three polling agents at gunpoint. They also broke up CCTV cameras and took away ballot papers, ballot boxes and stamps.
The polls were held in 14 districts of Sukkur, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad and Mirpurkhas division. Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Naushahro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umarkot and Tharparkar were among the districts.
In the second phase, voting will take place in the Hyderabad division along with provincial metropolis Karachi on July 24.