AJK Elections’ First Phase Begins Polling in Mirpur Division

Polling opened Monday in the first phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly elections, with voters casting ballots across 13 constituencies spanning Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhimber districts in Mirpur Division.

Voting runs from 8am to 5pm, with 296 candidates contesting seats, including representatives from the Pakistan Peoples Party, PML-N, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party, and independents.

Election officials say 1,401,439 registered voters are eligible across the 13 constituencies, comprising 725,118 male and 675,628 female voters — a roughly balanced electorate that reflects typical demographic patterns in AJK’s voter rolls. A total of 2,454 polling stations have been set up across the division: 597 in Mirpur district’s four constituencies, 1,107 across Kotli district’s six constituencies, and 608 in Bhimber district’s three constituencies.

The multi-phase structure of AJK’s elections, with Mirpur Division voting first, reflects the territory’s practice of staggering polling across its administrative divisions rather than holding a single nationwide vote — a system that has historically allowed for more concentrated security deployment in each phase compared to simultaneous territory-wide polling.

AJK Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal warned that legal action would follow against anyone attempting to disrupt voting, while AJK Chief Secretary Khushhal Khan said the region’s residents had rejected what he called disruptive elements and expressed confidence in the democratic process, adding that state institutions were fully prepared to ensure peaceful polling and that the law would take its course against anyone attempting to obstruct voting or disturb public order.

That emphasis on security and order comes against the backdrop of heightened political tension in AJK in recent weeks, including the Rawalakot standoff involving the banned Awami Action Committee, where JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman had stepped in as a mediator between the committee and both the government and PPP leadership. The reference to rejecting disruptive elements may reflect authorities’ awareness of that recent unrest as polling gets underway.

The election also arrives amid a notably combative campaign between PML-N and PPP, with federal ministers from both parties trading pointed rhetoric in recent weeks — PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal framing Kashmir’s development choice as between Lahore-style progress and what he called Karachi’s shortcomings, while PPP’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari predicted a historic defeat for PML-N and vowed to form the next AJK government.

Whether Mirpur Division’s results in this first phase set an early tone for the broader election, or whether subsequent phases in other divisions produce a markedly different outcome, will likely become clearer as results are tallied and additional phases of polling proceed across AJK’s remaining constituencies.