MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) has emerged victorious in the elections to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, winning by a simple majority, according to unofficial, preliminary results. The party will consequently form a government in the region.
Although results of one constituency is pending, unofficial results showed PTI in the lead with 25 seats, PPP in second place with 11 and PML-N in third place with six seats.
Both the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Party (JKPP) and the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) have also won one seat each.
Celebrations broke out “all over Kashmir” after PTI was declared the winner across the majority of seats.
The results of LA-16 have been withheld after ballot papers were lost in a clash at two polling stations, said Muhammad Ghazanfar Khan, AJK Election Commission secretary. He said polling could not be held at two more polling stations due to the dispute. Re-polling at four polling stations of LA-16 will be decided today, he said.
Sitting Prime Minister and PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider has won the LA-32 Muzaffarabad seat, defeating PPP’s Sahibzada Muhammad Ishfaq Azhar.
Meanwhile, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, PML-N Vice President stated that she will never accept the results of the AJK elections. She took to Social Media website twitter saying she has not accepted the results and will never accept them. “I did not accept the 2018 results either or acknowledge this fake government,” she added.
She lauded the party workers and voters. “What response we will come up with for these shameless rigging, is a matter that the party will decide soon, InshaAllah.”
Maryam Nawaz has attempted to show what her party has termed as “rigging” the elections after “stopping” the results for a while.
She re-tweeted an image that alleges a difference in votes of the PML-N candidate before and after results were “stopped”.
The PML-N candidate in the comparison is shown to have 14,016 votes versus a PTI candidate having 13,355 before the results were “stopped”.
Later, the PML-N candidate is shown to have lost to PTI after getting 20,467 votes as opposed to PTI’s 22,096.
Read more: PML-N will block Shahrah-e-Dastoor if AJK elections rigged: Maryam Nawaz
