"Results of Local Government Elections, 2005 in the districts of first phase have since been completed and announced," said Secretary Election Commission, Kanwar Muhammad Di1shad on Saturday quoting Acting Chief Election Commissioner, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
"Copy of the results has been placed outside the Conference Room of ECP Secretariat for inspection," he said.
Dilshad said the copies of the results have also been made available in offices of Returning officers and District Returning Officers for public convenience.
The ECP secretary said consolidation of results under the Local Government Elections Rules has been undertaken by all Returning Officers concerned.
On receipt from the Returning Officers, official results of all categories in Union Councils falling in the districts of first phase in all the four provinces will be published in the official gazette by the Election Commission on August 23, according1y, he added.
Meanwhile, the government-backed parties claimed early wins while opposition groups cried foul as unofficial results poured in on Saturday following the first round of local bodies' elections.
Political parties could not contest district council elections, but they openly showed which candidates were theirs even if colours and symbols were barred from campaigns.
At least 16 people were killed and hundreds injured in sporadic violence during Thursday's voting.
With general elections due in 2007, parties want district leaders in place who can influence voting for seats in provincial and national assemblies.
It matters for President Pervez Musharraf, one of the West's main allies in a global war on terrorism, as he will seek re-election by the assemblies and the Senate that emerges from the vote in two years' time.
The chief minister of Punjab reckoned the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), the party backed by Musharraf, had scored a landslide in Punjab. "Eighty percent of the winners are candidates supported by us. The PML has come out as a strong political force, and its impact would be visible in the 2007 general elections," Pervaiz Elahi said.
In Sindh, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a junior partner in government, was sure of wresting Karachi from religious parties who won in 2002.
"We have won in 110 out of the 178 union councils in Karachi," Kunwar Khalid Yunus, a central leader of the MQM and a member of the National Assembly, told Reuters.
Successes in these polls appeared patchy for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, but political analysts believe they still possess popular support.
In the two tribal-dominated provinces of Balochistan and NWFP, there were signs that religious parties' grip on power was also in danger of slipping.
Banded together under the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the religious parties became the largest opposition block after scoring their largest ever gains in 2002, thanks in part to a backlash against the US-backed overthrow of the Taleban's government in neighbouring Afghanistan a year earlier.
The PML was leading in Balochistan, while in the North West Frontier Province the MMA's dominance has been cut by another opposition group, the Awami National Party, which wants more autonomy.
Opposition groups hurled accusations of widespread fraud as votes were counted for the first round of voting, but an Election Commission official said on Saturday "absolutely no complaints have been received".
Voting was held in 53 districts nation-wide, the turnout was officially put at 50 percent - for women voters it ranged from 43 percent in Punjab to 16 percent in Frontier province. A remaining 56 districts will be contested in August 25.