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Vote Counting Underway in Bagh Districts
Vote counting was underway after polling concluded at 23 stations in two constituencies of Bagh district, while the Election Commission declared Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore the winner from LA-17 Haveli .
According to the AJK Election Commission, polling at nine stations in LA-15 Central Bagh and 14 stations in LA-16 Eastern Bagh began at 8am and remained largely peaceful, with no untoward incident reported. Voting had originally been held on August 10 in four constituencies across Bagh and Haveli as part of the third phase, but results in LA-15 and LA-16 were withheld after polling could not take place at a number of stations .
Results and Party Standings
In LA-15 Central Bagh, results from stations where polling was held earlier showed PPP candidate Sardar Zia-ul-Qamar leading with 16,637 votes, ahead of PML-N candidate Mushtaq Ahmed Minhas (15,015 votes) and Jamaat-e-Islami candidate retired Brigadier Dr Muhammad Khan (12,259 votes). The final outcome is expected after votes from the remaining nine stations are counted.
In LA-16 Eastern Bagh, results showed PML-N candidate Sardar Mir Akbar leading with 19,515 votes, 3,225 ahead of PPP candidate Sardar Qamar Zaman. Voting at 14 stations with 7,238 registered voters had been withheld .
Rathore Declared Winner, Abbasi Wins LA-14
The Election Commission formally declared Prime Minister Rathore the winner from LA-17 Haveli after Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal reserved his decision on PML-N candidate Chaudhry Mohsin Aziz’s petition alleging electoral irregularities .
The commission also issued a notification confirming the victory of Jammu and Kashmir Awami Dast-o-Bazu chairman Sajid Iqbal Abbasi from LA-14 Western Bagh, who defeated Muslim Conference president and former AJK prime minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan by a margin of 21,000 votes .
Overall Seat Count
In the phased AJK elections, the PML-N has so far won 24 seats, while the PPP has secured 11. Voting is still pending in Poonch and Pallandri districts, where elections were postponed because of the law and order situation arising from protests by a banned action committee.
