Counting of votes in first-ever provincial polls in northwest Pakistan underway

Counting of votes was going on Saturday to elect provincial lawmakers from Pakistan's former semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan that was once a stronghold of various militant groups like the Taliban and the al-Qaeda.

Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the first-ever provincial elections were held Saturday, comprises seven districts and was merged with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in May 2018 after a constitutional amendment.

The law set aside 24 seats in the KP assembly for the former FATA region. However, due to administrative reasons elections on those seats were not held with the general polls held in the country in July last year.

After putting in place all the necessary legal and logistic wherewithal, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) went ahead to hold the election on the 16 general seats.

Another four seats are reserved for women and one for non-Muslims and these seats will be awarded to the political parties on the basis of their share in 16 contested seats.

Nadeem Qasim, a spokesman of ECP, told media that it might take a day before the official results will be announced.

He said results of all polling station could not be transmitted online to the central office due to lack of internet and mobile phone services in some areas.

"Some polling stations are located in far flung areas where movement during night is not possible, making it impossible to submit the results on time," he said.

Qasim, however, said the results of each polling station would be announced on spot and polling agents of candidates would be given certified copies.

Earlier, the polling in all seven tribal districts started at 8.00 am and continued without any break until 5.00 pm.

A total of 1,897 polling stations were set up, including separate poling facilities for men and women. The ECP data showed that 285 candidates were contesting for 16 general seats.

They candidates belong to ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Awami National Party, Pakistan Peoples Party- Parliamentarians, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Qaumi Watan Party.

Two women candidates, Naheed Afridi of Awami National Party and Malasa of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, are also in the race.

The ECP said that out of 2.80 million voters, 1.67 million are men and 1.13 million women.

A great deal of enthusiasm was seen among the voters who started coming to the polling station from early in the morning.

Foolproof security measures were taken and the government deployed 34,497 security personnel from army, police and paramilitary Frontier Corps, Levies and Khasadar Force.

The tribal region was once known as a stronghold of militants from al-Qaeda and the Taliban but the rebels were killed or expelled by the Pakistan Army in successful military operations.

Pakistan, after a series of reforms, has also abolished the colonial era draconian Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) law, which prescribed collective punishments for the entire tribes even for minor misdemeanours.