PML-N has secured nine seats against PPP’s four in the completed first phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly elections, according to final unofficial and provisional results from all 13 constituencies across Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhimber districts. Polling took place Monday, with an additional hour granted for voters already present when the official 5pm deadline passed.
PML-N won LA-1 Mirpur-1, LA-4 Mirpur-4, LA-5 Bhimber-1, LA-6 Bhimber-2, LA-7 Bhimber-3, LA-9 Kotli-2, LA-11 Kotli-4, LA-12 Kotli-5, and LA-13 Kotli-6. PPP took LA-2 Mirpur-2, LA-3 Mirpur-3, LA-8 Kotli-1, and LA-10 Kotli-3 — a result that shifted from earlier partial counts, with PML-N ultimately winning both previously undecided Bhimber seats and PPP holding onto Kotli-3 despite trailing badly in initial partial returns from that constituency.
The closest contest of the night came in LA-5 Bhimber-1, where PML-N’s Waqar Ahmed Noor narrowly defeated PPP’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Ashraf by fewer than 700 votes, 30,259 to 29,574 — a margin considerably tighter than early partial counts had suggested, when Noor’s lead over Ashraf had appeared more comfortable at that stage.
In LA-6 Bhimber-2, full counting from all 195 polling stations showed PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Razaq winning with 32,732 votes against Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party’s Ali Shan Chaudhry, who took 26,718 — a result that saw both candidates’ vote totals grow substantially from earlier partial figures as counting from the remaining stations was completed.
LA-10 Kotli-3 produced the most significant reversal from initial trends: full results from all 169 polling stations showed PPP’s Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin winning with 12,431 votes against PML-N’s Fateh Mehmood-ul-Hassan’s 9,245 — a PPP victory that contrasts with earlier partial counting, which had shown PPP leading by a much narrower margin based on only a small fraction of stations reporting at that point.
Elsewhere, PML-N’s Azhar Sadiq held LA-1 Mirpur-1 with 15,427 votes against PPP’s Muhammad Afser Shahid’s 9,832, while PPP’s Qasim Majeed and Chaudhry Yasir Sultan retained LA-2 Mirpur-2 and LA-3 Mirpur-3 respectively. PML-N’s Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed won LA-4 Mirpur-4, and Chaudhry Tariq Farooq secured LA-7 Bhimber-3 by a wide margin over independent candidate Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq. PPP’s Zafar Iqbal Malik held LA-8 Kotli-1, while PML-N’s Umair Naeem, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Riasat Khan, and Raja Ayaz Ahmed Khan won LA-9 Kotli-2, LA-11 Kotli-4, LA-12 Kotli-5, and LA-13 Kotli-6 respectively.
With Mirpur Division’s phase now complete, PML-N’s nine-seat performance gives the party a commanding advantage heading into the subsequent phases of AJK’s staggered election process, though how that lead translates into overall assembly composition will depend on results from the remaining divisions still to vote. The unofficial results remain subject to final confirmation by the AJK Election Commission before formal certification.
