Local bodies polls will be held on schedule in Azad Kashmir: CEC.

MUZAFFARABAD -- Dispelling doubts about the forthcoming local bodies (LB) polls, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria on Tuesday emphatically declared that the long overdue electoral exercise would be held on schedule.

'The election commission is fully determined to hold LB polls after a gap of more than three decades. We request all eligible voters to use their democratic right without any fear, without paying any heed to negative propagandists,' he said at a media briefing along with senior member of the commission Raja Farooq Niaz.

The CEC urged leaders from different parties to avoid making statements that could create 'disappointment and unrest' in the state and instead help the election commission successfully accomplish this national duty.

He said that his institution had finalised almost all arrangements for the polls, adding that the government had provided funds to them to hold the LB polls, of which Rs280 million had so far been expended.

Commenting on polling in the areas hit by harsh winter, he said a decision about such areas would be taken close to the day of polling on Nov 27 in keeping with the weather conditions at that time.

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