| Two killed, several injured including 5 policemen in violent clashes at various polling stations | Election Commission rejects allegations of rigging | AJK polls held in free, fair, transparent manner: CEC

MUZAFFARABAD   -  Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party is leading the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections race, leaving behind the major opposition parties including the Pakistan  Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP).

According to the unofficial results, the PTI won 13 seats of the AJK Legislative Assembly while PML-N got two seats and the PPP secured only one seat.

The counting of votes was underway for election to 45 seats of the AJK Legislative Assembly till late Sunday night. The polling process was marred by violence and clashes between workers of different political parties in some areas.

Two people were killed and several others injured during violent clashes reported in different locations of Kotli, Haveeli, Bagh and Hattian Balla districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) the during polling.

Police said the workers of political parties clashed outside the polling stations and used firearms during the fight. “An exchange of fire occurred between Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) workers at Methi Dhara Prai polling station of LA 10 Kotli III (Chiroi) leaving two PTI workers dead,” SP Kotli Raja Akmal said.

In a quick response to the incident, the Pakistan Army reached the polling station and restored peace and resumed polling after an hour break, the election commission said.

In another incident in LA 17 (Haveeli), one person sustained bullet injury during a clash between PPP and PTI workers, local police said adding later polling was resumed. In Bagh district, a clash between PTI and PPP workers occurred at Hari Gail polling station left 6 people injured but later the situation was normalised by the security forces, an election commission official said.

Similarly, two incidents of clashes between PML-N and Jamat-e-Islami occurred at two polling stations in the constituency of Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan in Hattia Bala district, SP Riaz Mughal said.

In the first incident at Sara Chattiyan polling station 4 people got injured while at Jaskool polling station near Chinar clash left 3 people injured but polling was resumed after a short interval, Mughal added.

In a separate incident, five police Constables were injured after Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists attacked them with batons at the Dhal Chakhya polling station in AJK’s LA-32 constituency, Jhelum valley district SP Riaz Mughal said.

AJK has a total of 3.2 million voters, out of which 1.75 million are male and 1.46 million are female. There are 33 electoral constituencies in the ten districts of AJK, while 12 constituencies are reserved for Pakistan-based Jammu & Kashmir refugees. Polling booths in across all of Pakistan’s provinces were set up for the refugees.

Over 2.8 million voters have been registered in 33 AJK constituencies and 0.4 million in 12 Jammu Kashmir refugees based in various parts of Pakistan.

A total of 691 candidates, including 381 belonging to a total of 32 registered political parties and a total of 310 independent candidates, are in the run to win the election for 45 seats.

‘Election-rigging allegations’

Secretary Election Commission (EC) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Muhammad Ghazanfar Khan on Sunday said the General Elections 2021 were held in free, fair and transparent manner, and rejected the rigging allegations from some quarters. “No complaint has been received from any part of the state in this regard.” he said. “No one without original National Computerized Identity Card (CNIC) had been allowed to cast vote,” he told APP in an exclusive interview.

He said the EC looked into some complaints on its own and found no truth in them after complete verification. “Alhamdulillah!, the election process was generally peaceful.”

The secretary said that voters inside the polling stations were allowed to cast their votes even after ending of the announced closing time – 5:00pm.

He disagreed with the questioner that polling was not allowed in some constituencies due to law and order situation. “We have not received any report regarding the closing of polling at any polling station before the scheduled time.”

He expressed the satisfaction over the law and order, and appreciated the performance of police and Pakistan army for ensuring peaceful conduct of the elections. He said the AJK Chief Election Commissioner and EC members had visited all over the AJK to examine arrangements made for holding of the elections in a transparent manner.

Free, fair, transparent polling

Azad Jammu Kashmir Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retired) Abdul Rasheed Salaria Sunday expressed full satisfaction over holding of general elections process in Azad Jammu Kashmir in free, fair and peaceful manner. Talking to media persons during his visit to various polling stations in Kotli, Bhimbher and Mirpur districts, he expressed the hope that the overall turnout of the voting might be over 56 percent.

He was flanked by members of the AJK Election Commissioner Raja Farooq Ahmed Niaz and Farhat Ali Mir during visit to the polling stations to assess the polling process in Mirpur division. The chief election commissioner said that although there were reports about occurrence of some unpleasant incidents of clashes among the rival groups outside the polling stations, but the overall polling process remained peaceful under the due foolproof security arrangements. To this direction, he expressed full satisfaction over the arrangements made by the Election Commission for holding of the polls in free, fair and transparent manner.

RAWALPINDI: Polling for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections concluded in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Sunday. Business activities continued as per routine as the main markets, bazaars and shopping centres were not closed. Police took action and uprooted scores of camps of TLP, a banned outfit, in the district.

Strict security arrangements were seen and no untoward incident was reported anywhere in the twin cities.

A PPP spokesman said the party’s polling camps in Rawalpindi had been dislocated on the directives of the local police and administration, adding that the government was rigging elections through such tactics.

In a statement, the spokesperson said the PTI government distributed the election material for different polling stations in vehicles of PTI.

Election Commission announced complete results of 6 seats from refugee constituencies till 9:00 pm.

According to results announced, PPP’s Amir Abdul Ghafar lone clinched victory from LA 40 Valley I, by getting 2348 votes while his closet rival PTI’s candidate Muhammad Saleem Butt could secure only 796 votes and PMLN’s candidate Tahir Ali Wani got 501 vote.

 In LA 43 Valley 4, PTI’s candidate Javed Ahmad But won by securing 774 votes against his opponent PML-N candidate Naseema Wani‘s 720 votes while two other candidates in this constituency got zero vote.

In LA- 41 Valley 2, PTI candidate Dewan Ghulam Mohiuddin clinched victory by securing 2326 votes against his rival Akram Butt of PMPLN who could secure 741 votes and PPP candidate Shabir Abbas Mir got 166 votes.

In LA- 44 Valley 5, PMLN candidate Ahmad Raza Qadri won the election by securing 2007 votes against his rival candidate Mehr Un Nisa of Muslim Conference who secured 1163 votes while PTI candidate Bashir Ahmad Khan got 540 votes.

In LA 45 Kashmir Valley 6, PTI candidate Abdul Majid Khan retained his seat by securing 1545 votes against his rival independent candidate Abdul Nasir Khan who secured 718 votes while Jamate Islami candidate got 322 votes.

In LA- 38 Jammu 6, PTI candidate Akbar Ibrahim Chaudhary won by securing 12219 votes while PMLN candidate Chaudhary Zeeshan took second position by securing 7325 votes and Rana Sadeeq of Jamate Islami stood third by securing 640 votes.