The counting of votes is underway after polling ended for the second phase of the local government (LG) elections in 32 districts of Balochistan on Wednesday, Aaj News reported,

In the second phase of the LG elections, the councilors elected during the first phase cast their votes for the reserved seats of 7 municipal corporations, 48 municipal committees, and 597 union councils.

The polling started at 8 am and continued uninterrupted till 5 pm without any break. The voting was held for 33 percent of seats allocated for women, 5 percent each for farmers, labours, and non-Muslims.

On the reserved seats for women, as many as 786 female candidates were elected unopposed out of 2,082.

Polling on 1295 seats was held on women’s seats while no candidate submitted nomination papers on 19 seats.

All set for LG polls in 2 Balochistan districts today

On 902 Farmers’ seats, 412 candidates were elected unopposed while 10 remain vacant due to non-filing of nomination papers, and polling on the other 480 seats was held today.

On 902 reserved seats for labours, 408 candidates were elected unopposed while no one submitted nomination papers on 6 seats and the olling was held on 488 seats.

Similarly, 146 candidates were elected unopposed on 902 Minorities seats, while the election was not held on 709 seats due to not submission of nomination papers, while polling was held on 47 seats.

Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said that strict security measures were put in place in all districts.

In order to ensure a smooth, free, fair, and transparent polling manner, the ECP appointed 32 DROs, 131 ROs, 145 AROs, 597 Presiding Officers and 597 Polling Officers for Balochistan LG polls.