The polling started at 8 a.m. and concluded at 5 p.m. without any break and held amid tight security. Over 2.80 million registered voters exercise their right of franchise to elect their representatives for 16 general seats of of the KP Assembly.

ISLAMABAD: The polling time for the first-ever election for 16 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats in merged districts of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) concluded at 5pm Saturday.

The polling process, which started at 8.00am, continued till 5.00 pm without any break. The voters, who were present within the premises of polling stations at concluding time, were allowed to cast their vote.

Soon after the conclusion of polling, the ECP staff at the polling stations started counting of votes.

Tight security measures were taken to ensure holding of the polling in a peaceful and transparent manner.

Besides local police, Pak Army were deployed in and outside the polling stations to help the administration in maintaining a peaceful atmosphere.

According to an official of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), total registered voters in the merged tribal areas were 2,801,834, out of which 1,671,305 were male and 1,130,529 were female.

The ECP had appointed eight District Returning Officers, 36 Assistant Returning Offices and 1897 Presiding Officers.

He said three-tier security arrangements were made to enable the voters to exercise their right of franchise in a secure environment.

He said total 282 candidates were contesting election. He added that 28 candidates were contesting elections on seats reserved for women and non-Muslim, including 22 on women seats and six on non-Muslim seats.

He said the commission had set up 1,897 polling stations out of which 482 were male, 376 were female and 1,039 were combined ones.

The official said that army troops were deployed outside all the 1897 polling stations, including 554 highly sensitive ones where they also performed duty inside.

He said to encourage female voters to cast their votes more conveniently, female security staff was deployed at all female polling stations and female booths of all combined polling stations.

He said the ECP had already directed the provincial government for installation of CCTV cameras at all booths of 1,897 polling stations and in tha regard, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) had also been issued to the concerned.

He said a complaint center had been established at the ECP Secretariat Islamabad as well as at the ECP office Peshawar.

He added the ECP had printed 2,891,000 ballot papers for 2,801,834 voters.

According to updated electoral rolls, in PK-100 Bajaur-I total voters are 156,237, out of which male voters are 94,937 and female voters are  61,300, PK-101 Bajaur-II, total voters are 161,047, male voters 94,349 and female voters 66,698, PK-102 Bajaur-II total voters 216,719, male voters 125,358 and female voters are 91,361, PK-103 Mohmand –I total voters 110,477, male voters 68,469, female voters 42,008, PK-104 Mohmand-II total voters 170,022, male voters 106,749, female voters 63,273, PK-105 Khyber-I total voters 167, 484, male voters 94,514, female voters 72,970, PK-106, Khyber-II total voters 148,470, male voters 82,818, female voters 65,652, PK-107, Khyber-III total voters 216,133, male voters 123,683, female voters 92,450, PK-108, Kurram-I total voters 172,897, male voters 99,534, female voters 73,363, PK-109, Kurram-II total voters 187, 844, male voters 105,284, female voters 82,560, PK-110, Orakzai total voters 196,436, male voters 110,741, female voters 85,695, PK-111, North Waziristan-I total voters 141,053, male voters 92,845, female voters 48,208, PK-112, North Waziristan-II total voters 179,124, male voters 117,811, female voters 61,313, PK-113, South Waziristan-1 total voters 218,835, male voters 122,197, female voters 96,638, PK-114, South Waziristan-II total voters 167,994, male voters 115,572, female voters 52,422 and PK-115, ex Frontier Regions total voters 191,062, male votes 116444, female voters 74,618. —APP