Sunday saw one of the most hotly contested elections in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region, which has assumed added significance in the wake of the promise made by the Centre-ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) earlier this month to grant provisional provincial status to the region.
At the time of going to press, the PTI was said to be leading in 9 of the 24 seats on offer, followed by Independents 7, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) 4, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) 2, Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) 1 and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) 1. These are however, unconfirmed results, according to local Gilgit-Baltistan Times magazine.
All three major parties, PTI, PPP and PML-N, worked the circuit in a frenzied build-up to the election that has historically swayed to the party in Centre.
As with PPP in 2009 and PML-N the last time in 2015, the general expectation is that it will fall to the PTI but possibly in a coalition-setting.
However, there is an extra edge to the elections this time given the rousing opposition campaign to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan from power under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Alliance from the Centre, which has seen a flurry of rallies across major cities.
As many as 330 candidates, including four women, are vying for the 24 general seats in the third legislative assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan.
According to data obtained from the GB Election Commission, a total of 745,361 people were registered to vote yesterday, 339,992 of whom are women. Nearly 1,234 polling stations were set up in the 24 constituencies.
Citizens had lined up outside polling stations, wearing face masks and observing social distancing. Hundreds braved heavy snowfall in the upper areas of GB to cast their vote.
Vote count in several cities in Gilgit-Baltistan began after polling, in what was one of the most hotly contested election the region has ever seen, came to an end at 5pm yesterday.
PTI supporters here were seen celebrating party candidate Zakariya Khan’s victory, which has yet to be confirmed, in GBLA-7 Skardu-I, according to dawn.com, Pakistan’s leading web portal. It said Khan secured 5,290 votes while his competitor, PPP’s Syed Mehdi Shah, got 4,114.
In Ghanche-I constituency, independent candidate Mushtaq Hussain reportedly defeated PTI’s Ibrahim Sanai with 6,051 votes. The latter got 4,945 votes. PPP candidate Mohamed Jaffar secured 2,615 votes.
Independent candidate Wazir Saleem was leading the race with 3,380 votes in GBLA-9 Skardu-III constituency, followed by PTI’s Fida Nashad who secured 1,213 votes, according to unconfirmed results.
PPP’s Engineer Ismail was in front in GBLA-24 constituency, Ghanche-III with 6,206 votes. He is followed by PTI’s Shamsuddin who has reportedly bagged 5,361 votes.
Voting began at 8am and continued until 5pm without any interval. Polling in most constituencies went smoothly throughout the day. In Gilgit city, women and the elderly showed their enthusiasm and turned up at polling stations to cast their votes. However, in Ghizer, Hunza, Sost and Baltistan heavy snowfall continued, restricting citizens to their houses.
CROWD-PULLERS: (from left) PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari; Prime Minister Imran Khan of Centre-ruling PTI; and PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz.
