December 21, 2021
The incumbent PTI suffered a major setback after the Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI candidate won the seat for the post of Peshawar mayor in the local government elections held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to unofficial and unverified results.
PTI not only faced a setback in the mayoral elections but Tehreek Ulema-e-Islam also defeated the ruling party in the tehsil council election.
In the first phase of local body elections in KP, elections were to be held for 61 tehsil councils and five city councils; however, no elections were held in Baka Khel tehsil and Dera Ismail Khan city council.
According to the initial plan, polling was to be held for five city mayor seats, however, polling in Dera Ismail Khan was postponed following the murder of Awami National Party’s candidate. Hence, polling was only conducted in Marda, Peshawar, Kohat, and Bannu.
According to unofficial results, no PTI candidate managed to win in the above-mentioned cities.
In Mardan, ANP's Himayatullah Mayar bagged the seat with 56,458 votes while JUIF's Amanat Shah Haqqani was in second place with 49,938 votes, according to unofficial, unverified results of the polls.
Meanwhile in Kohat, according to unofficial results, Sher Zaman of JUI won the mayor seat with 34,434 votes and independent candidate Shafiullah Jan was in second place with 25,793 votes.
In Peshawar, according to the unofficial and unverified results, JUI’s Zubair Ali won the race with 62,388 votes while PTI's Rizwan Bangash won the second spot with 50,659 votes.
Unofficial results of 515 out of 521 polling stations have been released for the mayor of Peshawar city council. While results of six polling stations have been withheld.
In Bannu, according to unofficial results, JUI’s Irfanullah Durrani has been declared the winner with 59,844 votes and PTI's Iqbal Jadoon Khan was second with 47,398 votes.
According to Geo News, elections were to be held in 61 tehsil councils; however, the polling process in Baka Khel tehsil of KP’s Bannu district was halted after the law and order situation was disrupted. Moreover, results of two more tehsils were withheld, hence, so far results of 46 out of 58 tehsil councils have been declared.
Per unofficial and unverified results, JUI candidates have won 16 seats in the tehsil council. Meanwhile, 10 candidates of the ruling party PTI managed to secure the seats.
Apart from these, eight independent candidates won the seats of chairman tehsil council.
While six members of ANP, three members of PML-N, two members of Jamaat-e-Islami and one chairman of Tehreek-e-Istiqlal Pakistan (TIP) have been elected.