Unofficial results on Thursday of the by-election for the seat rendered vacant after former Azad Jammu and Kashmir premier Ilyas Tanveer’s disqualification in April showed the PPP had won the contest.
According to unofficial results issued by the returning officer, PPP’s Sardar Zia Qamar bagged 25,755 votes while PML-N’s Mushtaq Ahmed Minhas emerged as the first runner-up after securing 20,485 votes.
Minhas, a journalist turned politician who had clinched victory in his maiden election in AJK in 2016, conceded defeat, and was seen in a picture embracing and greeting Qamar following the announcement of unofficial results.
Later, Qamar said while speaking to Dawn.com over the phone that “this victory is a reflection of people’s trust in a genuine and humble political worker who prefers to stay among them through thick and thin”.
PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari congratulated Qamar on Twitte
“Thank you Bagh, AJK for placing your faith in the PPP. After Multan and Karachi, the Bagh by-election has cemented our winning streak. Congratulations to Sardar Zia Qamar, former PYO president and current chief organiser AJK PPP on his victory.
“Bagh hosted our protest against G20 meeting in occupied Kashmir last month. Today’s victory sends a strong message on both sides of the border,” he tweeted.
The PTI candidate, Muhammad Zamir Khan, was the second runner-up with 4,942 votes, unofficial results showed.
According to data shared by the election commission, 52,671 votes were polled in the by-election in LA-15, Bagh-II constituency, which has 101,146 registered voters, including 48,038 women.
The election commission had set up 189 polling stations in the constituency, of which 30 were declared sensitive and 20 most sensitive.
Around 2,500 police personnel and 350 paramilitary troops were deployed in the constituency to maintain law and order.
Witnesses said there were incidents of violence at some polling stations, during which some people were injured.
Ashraf Khan, a 65-year-old shopkeeper, commented that the “election was outwardly contested by political parties but inwardly by clans”.
“All contesting parties begged for votes in the name of the clan, rather than the ideology,” he remarked.
