The independent candidates were leading in the local government (LG) elections held on Sunday in 32 districts of Balochistan after a period of nine years. As per the unofficial and initial results, independent candidates won 1,058 seats followed by Jamiat Ulema-e -Islam (JUI) securing 98 seats and the ruling Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) bagged 71 seats. Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) won 39 seats, National Party (NP) secured 26 seats, Balochistan National Party (Mengal) bagged 18 seats while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) bagged 10 and six seats respectively.
The polling, which started at 8am, continued till 5pm without any interruption with the process largely remained smooth and peaceful. However, one person was killed during an exchange of fire between two rival groups in the Noshki district. Over three dozen people also sustained injuries in sporadic clashes between rival groups in various parts of the province. The stringent security measures were in place in all 32 districts of Balochistan to maintain law and order situation. The provincial government had declared over 2,000 polling stations sensitive. Besides levies and police, the authorities had also deployed the frontier corps to avoid any untoward incident. The candidates were contesting for 4,456 councillors seats and as many as 1,584 councillors were elected unopposed.
