PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday directed the political parties to submit till April 19 the priority lists of their candidates against the seats reserved for women, non-Muslims, youth, and peasants for the upcoming local government elections.

In a press release issued here, the ECP said that under section 74 (7) (C) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, registered political parties had to submit their respective lists with the concerned returning officers.

Under the law, four categories of seats are reserved in the tehsil and district councils, including those for women, non-Muslims, youth, and peasants. These seats have to be filled on the basis of proportional representation in accordance with the number of seats won by a political party in a tehsil and district.

The ECP has made it clear that a party which does not submit the priority list would be deprived of reserved seats in case it won the required number of seats.

Under the law, approximately 33 per cent seats are reserved for women in each of the district and tehsil council, whereas five per cent seats are reserved for each of the non-Muslims, youth and peasant workers.