Final Phase Of LB Elections To Be Held Tomorrow

MIRPUR (AJK) : (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Dec, 2022 ):The 3rd and last phase of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Local Bodies elections will be held on December 08 (Thursday).

Arrangements have been made to hold polling in all three districts of Mirpur Division, including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher in free, fair and peaceful environment. In all the three districts, a total of 1,232,079 registered voters will exercise their right of franchise to elect the local bodies representatives.

These registered voters include 563,016 in Kotli district, 366,043 in Mirpur district and 303,020 registered voters in the Bhimbher district.

A total of 1,026 polling stations are being set up in Kotli district, 625 in Mirpur district and 538 in Bhimbher district with 1602, 924 and 850 polling booths in the three districts respectively to facilitate both male and female voters.

A total of 10,500 civil and armed forces troops, including 4400 AJK police personnel, 1910 Punjab police constables, 3000 Frontier constabulary jawans and 1200 Pakistan Rangers personnel would be deputed on the special duty. The polling stations included 874 extremely sensitive, 803 sensitive and 511 normal police stations.

This was disclosed in a high level meeting of the AJK police and Mirpur division and all three districts administrations held at the Commissioner office here late Tuesday with Azad Jammu Kashmir Inspector General Police Dr Amir Sheikh in the chair.

The meeting was attended among others by Additional IGP AJK, DIG Mirpur, Commissioner Mirpur Division, Deputy Commissioners of all three districts and SSP Mirpur. The SPs of Bhimbher and Kotli participated through video links besides other senior officials of the Divisional and Districts administrations.

An AJK Police spokesperson later told APP here on Wednesday that in order to ensure the holding of the polling in absolutely free, fair and peaceful environment, Mirpur division had been divided into 21 zones comprising 234 sectors.

SSPs and SPs would head each zone.

"A Central Control Room at Mirpur Divisional HQ will monitor whole of the law and order situation during polling on all three districts of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher. The District level Control Rooms have also been established in all three districts", the spokesperson said.

A special high level AJK Police Monitoring team headed by Additional IGP has been deputed to monitor the entire law and order situation during the electoral process simultaneously in all three districts of Mirpur division.

At the same time the Central Divisional HQ Control Room has started monitoring of the trend and the fake news on the social media related to the elections process and related matters, according to the spokesperson.

Fatiha was also offered for late additional special home secretary of AJK Hameed Mughal. Hameed Mughal, a senior officer of AJK Administration Service, had died of cardiac arrest in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday.

The LB elections in AJK are being held on political party basis. However, independent candidates are also in run to contest the polls to get into the civic bodies of all categories across the liberated territory.

There are a total of 306 seats of local bodies institutions, including 27-seat District Council, 46-seat Municipal Corporation, 202 seats of a total of 27 union councils, and 31 seats of three Municipal Committees, including those of Islamgarh, Chaksawari and Dadayal.

It may be mentioned that in 1st and 2nd phase, the local bodies elections were held in Muzaffarabad and Poonch divisions respectively on November 27 and December 03.

Polling will start at 8.00 a.m. and will continue till 5.00 p.m without any pause. The registered voters present in the premises of the polling stations will be able to use their right of vote even after 5.00 p.m.