In the second phase of local government elections in Sindh, voting has begun in the Karachi and Hyderabad divisions, with over 3.4 million individuals exercising their right to vote for local government representatives.
Voting began at 8 a.m. and will continue until 5 p.m. It is occurring in seven Karachi districts and nine Hyderabad division districts.
Due to a rocky road to the polls, it required three postponements, lawsuits, and political battles before the local government elections could eventually be held.
Interestingly, one of the most popular parties in the two cities, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), announced a boycott of the elections late Saturday night.
The party’s decision followed the failure of a day of negotiations with the provincial government regarding the desire for new delimitation.
Keeping in mind the MQM request, P’s the Sindh government sent a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday morning requesting a postponement of the elections.
However, the electoral commission was unmoved by the Sindh government’s petition requesting a postponement and opted to hold the elections as scheduled.
Dr. Khalid Maqbool, convener of the MQM-P, and the party’s top leaders have said that the municipal elections had already been rigged. “Consequently, we refuse to acknowledge the results,” he stated.
