The ruling PML-N may not have the best of chances of making an impact in Bahawalpur’s local government polls due to groupings and rifts at various levels.

Other parties like the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) also have their problems but differences among the PML-N’s prominent figures are all too visible.

Hanif Samoon.-

A fire in the Tando Muhammad Khan Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office has damaged three rooms and an office storeroom, where ballot boxes and old records were kept, ECP staff said.

ECP official Abdul Qadeer Rajput said the fire had destroyed old records, literature and upcoming local body election records, while records in other rooms had been salvaged. He added that efforts were under way to control the blaze.

KUWAIT: Islamist MP Abdulrahman Al-Jeeran said yesterday that he plans to submit amendments to the electoral law and to the constitution with the aim to increase the number of MPs in a bid to allow membership of the Cabinet to be raised.

After visiting the polling centre for the Federal National Council (FNC) elections at the Dubai World Trade Centre on Saturday, he said democracy has been part of the UAE's heritage "since the time of our fathers and forefathers and we inherited that value with pride and belief in our social, cultural and religious legacy without compromising the rich Arab-Islamic culture".

Voting for a new parliament is under way in Kyrgyzstan, with pro-Russian parties looking set to retain their dominance.

Polling stations opened at 02:00 GMT on Sunday, with ethnic tensions, the economy, corruption and security concerns among the election issues in the former Soviet republic.

More than 2,000 candidates representing 14 parties are running for the 120 seats in parliament.

Voting will conclude at 14:00 GMT with the composition of the new assembly expected to be known shortly thereafter.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has declared its readiness to form a post-election coalition government with all parties except the Peoples’ Democratic Party, which it described as an “extension of the PKK.”

Seven electoral alliances are running in the first stage of the parliamentary elections slated for 18-19 October, the High Elections Committee (HEC) announced in a statement on Saturday.

There are four lists contesting 15 seats in the West Delta, which are the Salafist Nour Party, Fi Hob Misr list (for the Love of Egypt), Forsan Misr (The Knights of Egypt) and the combined electoral list of the Egyptian Front and the Independence Current.

In a statement on Egypt's upcoming parliamentary elections on 16 September, the Higher Elections Committee (HEC) in charge of supervising the polls announced that a total of 5,955 individuals had applied to run in the polls. One day later, however, the committee said the applications of as many as 535 individuals had been rejected, thus lowering the number of independent candidates to 5,420.