GUJRAT: Candidates for local body elections as well as local leadership of various political parties seem reluctant to launch a full-scaled election campaign in the district as clouds of uncertainty continue to hover over holding of the polls scheduled for Oct 31.

Since Gujrat is included in the Erst phase of the scheduled polls, the process of filing nomination papers and their scrutiny concluded on Thursday.

According to local political and official sources, candidates and parties have not raised objections to nomination papers of rival candidates, which seems unprecedented.

Though usually the support or party ticket of a ruling party was an attractive prospect for potential candidates during local government elections, but this time even the ruling PML-N is finding it hard to convince candidates toEle nomination papers indicating a disinterest in the polls.

This correspondent talked to some candidates and returning ofHcers and most cited uncertainty of the elections being held at all as the main reason.

A returning officer said candidates might be avoiding a prolonged electioneering as the entire process stretched over two months and even after completion of scrutiny, the polling day was six weeks away. He said two weekswere enough for electioneering of a small ward or union council as even campaigns for general elections took two or three weeks only.

Another returning officer expressed surprise that candidates had not raised objections, which could either herald a new phenomenon of maturity in local government polltics or that people were not sure about the polls being held.

A ruling party lawmaker from Kharian tehsil told Dawn so far he had not nominated or supported any of the candidates and panels of his constituency despite the fact that a number of his supporters and sympathisers had filed their nomination papers.

When asked why he avoided nominating his party or group`s candidates, he said he did not want to upset anyone as there were doubts around the polls and if he nominated candidates early, it could ruin his future in politics in the constituency.

The PML-Q leadership that had been dominating local government politics in Gujrat since 1983 had also advised its potential candidates to avoid launching extensive electioneering and only file nomination papers until they were clear about the polls being held.

According to insiders, the party leadership did not see local elections being held in the near future.