LB by-polls: Murtaza Wahab wins UC chairman seat from Karachi’s Saddar Town

• Jubilant PPP workers celebrate the sought-after victory.
• Deputy Mayor Salman Murad wins chairman’s seat from Malir.
• PPP’s Saifullah Noor elected as chairman by securing 5,466 votes. 

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won the union committee (UC) chairman seat from Karachi’s Saddar Town area in local government elections held across 14 districts of Sindh on Sunday.

Wahab secured 3,976 votes against Jamat-e-Islami (JI) candidate Noor-ul-Islam, who bagged only 1,556 votes, according to unofficial results.

Following the announcement of the results, the jubilant PPP workers took to the streets to celebrate the victory.

Karachi’s deputy Mayor Salman Murad of the PPP also won the chairman’s seat from Karachi’s Malir district.

Karachi mayor elections were in June this year and under the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act, the mayor and deputy mayor are required to contest and win UC chairman elections within six months after being elected.

According to the unofficial results of 15 polling stations of Malir's UC-7 of Gadap town, Murad got 4,717 votes while JI's Ayub Khaskheli received 951 votes.

PTI's Abdul Hafeez Jokhio secured 175 votes.

PPP’s Saifullah Noor was elected as chairman by securing 5,466 votes from UC-3 of Mauripur town.

According to the returning officer Kemari, Muhammad Hussain of JI was runner-up with 788 votes followed by Muhammad Shahid Iqbal of PML-N who managed to get only 606 votes.

The returning officer said that the turnout in UC-3 Maripur Town remained at 29% while as many as 7,485 voters cast ballots out of total 25,512 registered voters.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the local government by-elections were held in Karachi, Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Jacobabad, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroze and other districts.

The ECP said polling was held on 21 seats from 8am till 5pm.

As many as 163 polling stations were set up across Sindh, of them 72 of the polling stations were declared “highly sensitive” and 89 “sensitive”.

In Karachi, the commission said, 121 polling stations were set up. Forty-two of the polling stations were declared “highly sensitive” and 79 “sensitive”.

Provincial Election Commissioner Ejaz Anwar Chohan has directed all relevant authorities that fair and transparent polls must be ensured.

The ECP has also established a control room to monitor the election process.