GILGIT: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the most seats in the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly elections but failed to win an outright majority.
According to unofficial/unconfirmed results, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secured nine seats while PPP got four seats, PML-N grabbed two seats, MWM secured one seat and independent candidates have secured seven seats in the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly elections held on Sunday.
Polling which started at 8am continued until 5pm without any break. There were 24 seats for the contest but polling on one seat was postponed, leaving 23 seats up for grabs. As many as 330 candidates, including four women, were in the contest.
Elections had been delayed in GBLA-3 following the death of PTI Gilgit-Baltistan President retired Justice Jaffer Shah from coronavirus. At least 1,26,997 fresh voters have also used right of vote in general elections of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The territory of Gilgit-Baltistan was granted limited autonomy in 2009 after the then-President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Empowerment and Self Governance Order in a bid to empower its over 1 million population. In November 2020, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Gilgit-Baltistan would be given the status of a provisional province, and the process to fully convert it into an actual province is currently underway
PPP won the first elections in 2009 while PML-N emerged victorious in the second election, winning 22 seats out of a total of 33. The 2020 polls were originally scheduled to be held in July but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gilgit Baltistan has a total of 24 constituencies while its assembly has 33 seats. The political candidates will contest for 24 out of 33 seats while the remaining seats are reserved for women (6) and technocrats (3). According to the Election Commission of GB, the total number of registered voters is 745,361, of which 339,992 are women.
Nearly 1,234 polling stations have been set up in 24 constituencies, of which 415 had been declared extremely sensitive. Police, GB Scouts, the Rangers and FC personnel would be deployed to ensure a smooth election process.
GB caretaker Chief Minister Mir Afzal had earlier announced that Pakistan Army’s support would not be sought for the upcoming elections.
Unofficial results of twenty three constituencies GB-1, GB-2, GB-4, GB-5, GB-6, GB-7, GB-8, GB-9, GB-10, GB-11, GB-12, GB-13, GB-14, GB-15, GB-16, GB-17, GB-18, GB-19, GB-20, GB-21, GB-22, GB-23 and GB-24 have been declared. PTI secured nine seats while PPP got four seats, PML-N grabbed two seats, MWM secured one seat and independent candidates have secured seven seats.
