Polling Underway for Vacant Original Government Seats in Mathra Tehsil of Peshawar and Havelian Tehsil of Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
The polling began at 8 am and is scheduled to continue until 5 pm. Six candidates are competing for the chairmanship of Mathra tehsil. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reports that the constituency has a total of 218,630 voters, including 120,738 male voters and 97,892 female voters. A total of 155 polling stations have been established for the election, with 496 presiding officers assigned duties, and district returning and returning officers given magisterial powers.
The candidates in the field for the Mathra tehsil chairmanship are Rafiullah from JUI, Inamullah from PTI, Iftikhar Ahmed from JI, Aziz Ghaffar Khan from ANP, Ali Abbas Khan from PPP, and Fazlullah from PML-N. The seat became vacant following the death of Tehsil Mathra chairman Faridullah of JUI-F.
In Havelian tehsil of Abbottabad, a closely contested race is expected between Malik Talha of PML-N and Iftikhar Khan of PTI for the tehsil chairman position. Independent candidate Uzair Sher is also considered a strong contender. The seat was vacated after Atif Munsif was murdered. Havelian tehsil comprises nine union councils and 34 village councils, with a total of 165,800 voters, including 88,364 male and 77,436 female voters. A total of 134 polling stations have been established, and 34 of them have been declared sensitive. Around 2,071 police personnel have been deployed for polling duty.
In the previous Mathra election, JUI’s Faridullah Khan secured victory with 22,000 votes. JI’s Iftikhar Ahmed received 15,844 votes, followed by PPP’s Ali Abbas Khan with 9,835 votes.