• PPP, PML-N cry foul
• Most voters, election staff observe SOPs
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was on the driving seat in the most hotly-contested elections ever held in strategically-located Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday, according to incomplete and unofficial results, with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) complaining about some irregularities and alleged rigging during the polling and counting process which mostly remained peaceful.Till filing of this report, the unofficial results from only nine constituencies had been received, with PTI and independents winning three each, PPP two seats and Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) having a seat adjustment with the PTI winning in one constituency.Out of the remaining 14 constituencies, the PTI was leading in five, independents in four and the PPP in three, whereas the candidates belonging to the PML-N and the JUI-F were leading in one constituency each.The PTI workers celebrated the victory of its candidate Raja Zakaria Khan who defeated former chief minister Syed Mehdi Shah of the PPP on GBLA-7 Skardu-I seat. According to unofficial results, the PTI candidate bagged 5,290 votes, followed by Syed Mehdi Shah 4,114 votes and Muhammad Akbar of the PML-N only 196 votes.
The second seat won by the PTI is GBLA-11 Kharmang where its candidate Syed Amjad Ali defeated independent candidate Syed Mohsin Rizvi.Mohammad Kazim of the MWM won the GBLA-8 Skardu-II seat by defeating PPP’s Syed Muhammad Ali Shah after a tough contest.The three independents who bagged victories are: Nasir Ali Khan (GBLA-10 Skardu-IV), Javed Ali Manwa (GBLA-5 Nagar-II) and Mushtaq Hussain (GBLA-22 Ghanche-I).Javed Ali Manawa was an aspirant of the PTI ticket and contested the election independently when the party awarded ticket to Rizwan Ali of the MWM after reaching an agreement with the latter. The MWM candidate stood third in the race and another independent candidate Zulfiqar Ali Murad remained runner-up.The PPP has so far managed to win GBLA-4 Nagar-I and GBLA-24 Ghanche-III seats. In Nagar, PPP’s Amjad Hussain defeated Ayub Waziri of Islami Tehreek Pakistan, whereas Zulfiqar Ali of the PTI remained third in the race.
In Ghanche, PPP’s Muhammad Ismail beat PTI’s Syed Shamsuddin with a margin of just 843 votes.The formerly ruling PML-N was leading only in GBLA-21 Ghizer-III where its candidate Ghulam Muhammad was marginally ahead of PTI’s Raja Jahanzeb and PPP’s Muhammad Ayub Shah.Elections have been delayed in GBLA-3 following the death of PTI GB president retired Justice Jaffer Shah due to coronavirus.Earlier, despite the threat of Covid-19 and harsh weather conditions in some upper areas, the GB people voted in a complete discipline manner with no reports of violence coming from any part of the region where out of 1,141 polling stations, 577 had been declared sensitive and 297 highly sensitive.Though the polling process remained peaceful, reports about clashes came later in the evening from different parts of Skardu and Ghizer at the time of counting of votes. A clash erupted between the workers of the PPP and PTI in Skardu when the counting was still going on. The PPP alleged that the PTI workers had attacked the party office and as a result seven of its workers received injuries.
Late in the night, the PPP alleged that the returning officers were not announcing the results despite completion of the counting process. A senior PPP leader even alleged that polling was continuing in one of the polling stations at Ghizer till 11pm and after that the PTI workers had taken away the ballot boxes from the site.As the results started pouring in from various polling stations, a number of federal ministers took to Twitter to castigate the opposition parties for raising rigging allegations. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry was quoted by a TV channel as saying that the people of GB had buried the opposition’s narrative.A low turnout was witnessed in some upper areas of GB, including Ghizer, Hunza and Sost, due to snowfall. There were also reports about slow pace of voting at some polling stations due to power outages.Most of the voters and the election staff, however, were seen following standard operating procedures (SOPs) that had been announced by the caretaker GB government at the polling stations to deal with coronavirus threat.This time the polls in GB had assumed much significance because of the tense political situation in Pakistan where 11 opposition parties have been running an anti-government campaign from the platform of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
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