PML-N Leads AJK Assembly Polls With Seven of 10 Declared Seats

PML-N has taken an early lead in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly elections, with Pakistan Peoples Party trailing in second place as unofficial results continue arriving from the first phase of polling.

Voting took place Monday across 13 constituencies spanning Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhimber, with the Election Commission extending polling by an hour after the official 5pm close to accommodate voters.

Of the 13 Mirpur Division constituencies, complete unofficial results have now been reported for 10, with PML-N winning seven seats and PPP taking three. PML-N secured victories in LA-1 Mirpur-1, LA-4 Mirpur-4, LA-7 Bhimber-3, LA-9 Kotli-2, LA-11 Kotli-4, LA-12 Kotli-5, and LA-13 Kotli-6, while PPP won LA-2 Mirpur-2, LA-3 Mirpur-3, and LA-8 Kotli-1.

In LA-1 Mirpur-1, PML-N’s Azhar Sadiq won with 15,427 votes against PPP’s Muhammad Afsar Shahid, who took 9,832. PPP reversed that pattern in LA-2 Mirpur-2, where Qasim Majeed secured 12,904 votes against PML-N’s Azeem Bakhsh Chaudhry’s 8,182. PPP’s Chaudhry Yasir Sultan won LA-3 Mirpur-3 with 11,676 votes, narrowly ahead of PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed at 9,832.

PML-N’s Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed took LA-4 Mirpur-4 with 20,172 votes against PPP’s Chaudhry Sohaib Arshad’s 13,865, while in LA-7 Bhimber-3, PML-N’s Chaudhry Tariq Farooq defeated independent candidate Chaudhry Anwarul Haq by a wide margin, 35,490 to 25,100.

PPP’s Zafar Iqbal Malik won LA-8 Kotli-1 with 19,535 votes against PML-N’s Malik Muhammad Nawaz Khan’s 11,966. PML-N’s Umair Naeem took LA-9 Kotli-2 with 31,080 votes in a closer contest against PPP’s Javed Iqbal Budhanvi, who polled 28,509. In LA-11 Kotli-4, PML-N’s Muhammad Asif won with 26,190 votes against PPP’s Chaudhry Muhammad Akhlaq’s 21,751.

PML-N’s Muhammad Riasat Khan secured LA-12 Kotli-5 with 35,168 votes against PPP’s Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin’s 30,320, while in LA-13 Kotli-6, PML-N’s Raja Ayaz Ahmed Khan won with 21,856 votes against Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party’s Nisar Ansar Abdali, who took 15,859.

Vote counting remains underway in the three remaining constituencies. In LA-5 Bhimber-1, with 115 of 176 polling stations reporting, PML-N’s Waqar Ahmed Noor leads with 21,573 votes against PPP’s Chaudhry Pervez Ashraf’s 18,406. In LA-6 Bhimber-2, with 100 of 195 stations counted, PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Razzaq leads with 21,210 votes against Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party’s Ali Shan Chaudhry’s 11,354. In LA-10 Kotli-3, with only 36 of 169 stations counted so far, PPP’s Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin leads with 6,999 votes against PML-N’s Fateh Mahmood-ul-Hassan’s 3,560 — though this partial count, representing barely a fifth of the constituency’s polling stations, leaves considerable room for the margin to shift as counting continues.

With PML-N holding a clear lead in two of the three remaining contests and PPP ahead in the third based on early, partial counting, PML-N’s overall seven-seat advantage from Mirpur Division appears likely to hold or potentially grow once final results are confirmed, pending the outcome of the still-uncounted stations in Bhimber and Kotli.