At least 75 National Assembly (NA) and 166 Provincial Assembly (PA) candidates are contesting general election 2018 in the district including six heavyweight candidates including former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Raja Qamar ul Islam and Hanif Abbasi.
According to the final lists issued by Returning Officers here, total 143 nomination papers for seven National Assembly seats, NA-57 to NA-63 of the district were filed and 402 for 15 provincial assembly seats, PP-6 to PP-20.
Total 128 nominations papers for NA seats were accepted with 351 for PA seats while after scrutiny process, 15 papers of NA and 51 of PA seats were rejected by the Returning Officers. 54 nomination papers of NA and 185 of PA were withdrawn.
Lists of candidates along with their symbols have been posted outside the offices of Returning Officers and District Returning Officers.
An ECP official told APP that the process of consolidation of data is currently underway and the completion of the process will take some time. The final list of the candidates will be uploaded on the Election Commission’s website after the consolidation, he added.
Total 31,25,669 are registered voters of Rawalpindi district including 16,47,507 male and 14,78,162 female.
Talking to APP District Election Commissioner, Rawalpindi-I, Saleem Akhtar informed that the training of the officers concerned are being completed here besides other arrangements for
smooth holding of general elections 2018.
To a question he said, action in accordance with the law would be taken against the violators of code of conduct and no relaxation would be given to anyone.
The district authorities concerned are taking action on the violations and illegal election publicity material including unapproved size banners and posters displayed by political parties and election candidates, is being removed, he added.
He further informed that Election Commission of Pakistan is also running a voters awareness program to enhance voters turn out in the general election 2018.
