724 candidates contested for 45 general seats
Artwork: Obair Khan/SAMAA Digital
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has won 25 seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Elections 2021.
The Pakistan Peoples Party won nine seats, while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which has formed the last government, won only six seats. All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party won one seat each.
The results of LA-2, LA-12, and LA-16 are awaited but PPP candidates are said to be in lead.
The polling started at 8am on July 25 (Sunday) and continued till 5pm. Thousands of people left their houses to cast their votes.
A total of 724 candidates are contesting for 45 general seats. This year, 20 women are competing in the polls. Five hundred and seventy-nine candidates are competing for 33 constituencies within Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The remaining are contesting for 12 “refugee constituencies” in the country’s four provinces.
The 45 directly-elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly will choose eight candidates for special seats. The assembly will be formed by 53 lawmakers.
This year, 32 political parties competed for the AJK elections.
Here is the list of the winners:
LA 1 – Mirpur I
LA 2 – Mirpur II (Awaited)
LA 3 – Mirpur III
LA 4 – Mirpur IV
LA 5 – Bhimber I
LA 6 – Bhimber II
LA 7 – Bhimber III
LA 8 – Kotli I
LA 9 – Kotli II
LA 10 – Kotli III
LA 11 – Kotli IV
LA 12- Kotli V (Awaited)
LA 13 – Kotli VI
LA 14 – Bagh I
LA 15 – Bagh II
LA 16 – Bagh III (Results to be announced after re-polling)
LA 17 – Bagh IV
LA 18 – Poonch and Sudhnuti I
LA 19 – Poonch and Sudhnuti II
LA 20 – Poonch and Sudhnuti III
LA 21 – Poonch and Sudhnuti IV
LA 22 – Poonch and Sudhnuti V
LA 23 – Poonch and Sudhnuti VI
LA 24 – Poonch and Sudhnuti VII
LA 25 – Neelum Valley I
LA 26 – Neelum Valley II
LA 27 -Muzaffarabad I
LA 28 – Muzaffarabad II
LA 29 – Muzaffarabad III
LA 30 – Muzaffarabad IV
LA 31 – Muzaffarabad V
LA 32 – Muzaffarabad VI
LA 33- Muzaffarabad VII
These 12 seats are reserved for Kashmiri refugees who migrated from the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 and 1965 and are settled in various parts of Pakistan.
LA 34 – Jammu I [Balochistan, Sindh, Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Sargodha, and Lahore]
LA 35 – Jammu II [Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Sialkot’s Daska, Pasroor and Samrial]
LA 36 – Jammu III [Sialkot]
LA 37 – Jammu IV [Narowal]
LA 38 – Jammu V [Gujranwala’s Wazirabad, Gujrat, and Mandi Bahauddin]
LA 39 – Jammu VI [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad]
LA 40 – Kashmir Valley I [Balochistan and Sindh]
LA 41 – Kashmir Valley II [Lahore]
LA 42 – Kashmir Valley III [Bahawalpur, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Jhelum, and Chakwal]
LA 43 – Kashmir Valley IV [Ward 15 to 50 in Rawalpindi]
LA 44 – Kashmir Valley V [Ward 1 to 14 of Rawalpindi, Cantonment ward 1 to 10, Islamabad, and Attock]
LA 45 – Kashmir Valley VI [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]
3:44PM: A group of PPP supporters attacked PTI’s Asif Hanif on his visit to the polling station in Nakial. They accused him of rigging after which a fight broke out between members of both the parties.
3:19PM: A man was arrested from LA-36 Jammu III’s polling station in Sialkot for carrying weapons. The police seized three magazine guns and 40 bullets from his possession. Display of weapons and carrying firearms is strictly prohibited under the electoral rule
2PM: Four FC officers were injured in a fight between the supporters of two parties at a polling station for women in Muzaffarabad’s Chattian.
12:23PM: At least 10 people were injured after a fight broke out between PPP and PTI workers in LA-15 Bagh’s polling station 86. FC and Pakistan Rangers personnel have reached the site. Voting at the station has been stopped. Injured people have been moved to the hospital.
12PM: Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Farooq Haider has claimed that security forces are collaborating with PTI candidates in Muzaffarabad VII’s Dara Batangi and Banayia.
I was told just now that in MZD 7 Dara Batangi and Banayia law enforcing agencies are collaborating with PTI candidate
— Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan (@farooq_pm) July 25, 2021
11:45AM: Polling at LA-35 Jammu II in Gujranwala’s Satellite halted after PML-N leaders were found inside the polling station. The deputy commissioner has reached the site and is vacating the station. Two people have been arrested.
11AM: PPP Senator Taj Haider, in a letter to the election commission, accused PTI workers of opening fire at the car of PPP workers at polling stations 91, 92, 93, 94,95, and 101. The police have, on the other hand, arrested LA-30’s chief polling agent Zarrar Khan.
In Abbottabad, a fight broke out between the supporters of two independent candidates. The police have reached the site and dispersed the crowd.
10:39AM: Two people were killed and two injured in an exchange of fire between the workers of PPP and PTI at a polling station in Kotli’s LA-12. Display of weapons and carrying firearms is strictly prohibited under the electoral rule. Voting at the polling station has resumed.
9:40AM: The PPP accused PTI of harassing voters at LA-34’s polling station 481. “They are not letting people vote,” a PPP worker claimed. The opposition party claimed that two polling agents of LA-9’s polling station 18 have disappeared. A written complaint has been sent to the election commission.
9:39AM: PPP wrote a letter to the secretary of the election commission accusing PTI workers of forcefully removing camps outside polling station 20 in LA-44. The police are instructing people to vote for certain candidates, the letter said.
8:30AM: Six people were arrested outside a polling station for LA-45 in Peshawar. It was reported that a fight broke out between polling agents and workers of a political party. The voting resumed after a delay of 30 minutes. The voters are being allowed inside The City School No 2 following strict security checking.
Over 2.8 million voters have been registered in Azad Kashmir and 0.4 million in Jammu. According to the AJK Election Commission, as many as 301,400 voters will exercise their right to vote in Mirpur district; 287,536 in Bhimber district; 540,646 in Kotli district, and 286,864 in Bagh district.
The AJK government has handed over the security of the upcoming election to the Pakistan Army. More than 44,000 security personnel will be deployed at polling stations across the region as per Article 245 of the Constitution. The Pakistan Army troops will be deployed from July 22 to July 26.
Police, assisted by LEAs from other provinces and Civil Armed Forces, including Rangers and FC, will be employed for the smooth and peaceful conduct of AJK Elections
The government has declared 1,209 polling stations sensitive and 826 most sensitive. Control rooms will be established across the region at the district level to ensure a smooth flow of voting.
The last elections were held in 2016, in which PML-N bagged 31 seats, PPP won three seats, PTI won two, and the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Party won one seat. Of the total 29 seats, PML-N took 22. The remaining it won from 12 constituencies across Pakistan.