MUZAFFARABAD: Polling for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly has begun, amid strict security measures, ARY News reported on Sunday.
According to the Election Commission, 5129 polling stations have been established for 3.2 million registered voters out of which 826 have been declared most sensitive and 1209 as sensitive deploying additional forces.
Polling that started at 08:00am will continue until 05:00pm without any break while results at the polling stations will be announced after one hour of the conclusion of the polling.
Over 40 thousand security personals including PAK Army, FC, Rangers & Police will perform duties to ensure peaceful polling.
According to data, 701 candidates are contesting for 45 general seats including 12 refugee seats in Pakistan. A tough contest is being expected between three main political parties Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) while on 7 seats regional parties Muslim Conference (MC) and Jammu Kashmir peoples party (JK-PP)’s candidates are in a tough contest against candidates of major political parties, on 6 MC and on one JKPP.
Read more: Survey reveals PTI likely to win AJK polls 2021
A total of 32 political parties are contesting the elections and hundreds of independent candidates are also vying in all the 45 electoral constituencies including 33 in AJK districts and 12 meant of Jammu and Kashmir refugees settled in various parts of Pakistan.
The remaining 8 seats are reserved out of which five are for women, and one each for overseas Kashmiris, technocrats and religious scholars.
Here is the list of candidates contesting the polls:
LA-1 Mirpur-1: Tough contest is expected between PTI’s Azhar Sadiq, PML-N’s Chaudhry Masood Khalid and Muhammad Afsar Shahid of the PPP.
LA-2 Mirpur-2: PTI’s Zafar Anwar, Muhammad Nazeer Inqalabi of the PML-N and PPP’s Chaudary Qasim Majeed are contesting the seat.
LA-3 Mirpur: A neck and neck contest is expected between PTI’s Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary vs PML-N’s Chaudhary Muhammad Saeed. Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, who is leading the party in the region, is the strong candidate to head the next government.
LA-4 Mirpur-4: Ch. Arshad Hussain of the PTI, PML-N’s Ch. Rukhsar Ahmad and PPP’s Riyasat Tabasum are fighting for the LA-4 Mirpur seat.
LA-5 Bhimber-1: PTI has fielded Anwar Ul Haq Noor, PML-N has put its weight in Col (R) Waqar Ahmad Noor and PPP’s Chaudhry Pervez Ahsraf are fighting in the constituency.
LA-6 Bhimber-2: Ali Shah Soni Raja (PTI) Maqsood Ahmad Khan (PML-N) Choudhary Idress (PPP).
LA 7 Bhimber-3: A tough contest is expected between PTI’s Chaudhary Anwar ul Haq and PML-N’s Chaudhary Tariq Farooq. In 2016, Farooq defeated Haq with over 2,000 votes.
LA-8 Kotli-1: Zafar Iqbal Malik (PTI) Zulfiqar Ali (PML-N) Muhammad Aftab Anjum (PPP).
LA-9 Kotli-2: Asif Hanif (PTI) Munir Hussain Khan (PML-N) Javed Iqbl Badhanvi (PPP).
LA-10 Kotli-3: Malik Yousif (PTI) Zubair Iqbal Kiani (PML-N) Ch. Muhammad Yaseen (PPP).
LA-11 Kotli-4: Choudhary Muhammad Akhlaq (PTI) Raja Naseer Ahmad Khan (PML-N) Sardar Muhammad Bashir Pehalwan (PPP)
LA-12 Kotli-5: Shoukat Farid (PTI) Raja Muhammad Riasat Choudhary (PML-N) Muhammad Yasin (PPP).
LA-13 Kotli-6: Nisar Ansar Abdali (PTI) Raja Ayaza Ahmad Khan (PML-N) Muhammad Waleed Inqalabi(PPP).
LA 14 Bagh: Top contestants: Former prime minister and head of the Muslim Conference’s Sardar Ateeq Ahmed Khan, vs PTI’s Major Lateef Khaleeq.
LA 15 Bagh: Top candidates: PTI’s Tanveer Ilyas vs PML-N’s Mushtaq Minhas vs Muslim Conference’s Raja Yaseen.
LA-16 Bagh-3: Sardar Mir Akbar Khan (PTI) Sardar Mir Akbar Khan (PML-N) Sardar Qamar Zaman (PPP)
LA-17 Bagh-4: Aamir Nazeer (PTI) Choudhary Muhammad Aziz (PML-N) Faisal Mumtaz Rathor (PPP).
LA-18 Poonch & Sudhnuti-1: Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi (PTI) Ch. Muhammad Yasin Gulshan (PML-N) Sardar Amjad Yousuf Khan (PPP).
LA-19 Poonch & Sudhnuti-2: Sardar Arzish Sudhozai (PTI) Sardar Aamir Altaf Khan (PML-N) Sardar Saud bin Sadiq (PPP).
LA-20 Poonch & Sudhnuti-3: Khattab Azam Khan (PTI) Abdul Rasheed Khan (PML-N) Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob (PPP).
LA-21 Poonch & Sudhnuti-4: PTI has not fielded any candidate in this constituency, while PML-N has fielded Tahir Anwar Khan and PPP is backing Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob.
LA-22 Poonch & Sudhnuti-5: Sardar Muhammad Sagheer Chugtai (PTI) Sardar Abdul Khaliq Wasi (PML-N) Syed Dilawar Bukhari(PPP).
LA-23 Poonch & Sudhnuti-6: Sardar Muhammad Hussain Advocate (PTI) Dr. Najeeb Naqi Khan (PML-N) Sardar Muhammad Raees Khan (PPP).
LA-24 Poonch & Sudhnuti-7: Faheem Akhtar (PTI) Sardar Farooq Ahmad Tahir (PML-N) Sardar Inayat Ullah Arif (PPP).
LA-25 Neelum Valley-1: Sardar Gul e Khandan (PTI) Shah Ghulam Qadir (PML-N) Mian Abdul Waheed (PPP).
LA-26 Neelum Valley-2: Mian Shafiq (PTI) Shah Ghulam Qadir (PML-N) Mian Abdul Waheed (PPP).
LA-27 Muzaffarabad-1: Mir Attique (PTI) Noreen Arif (PML-N) Sardar Muhammad Javed Ayyub (PPP).
LA 28 Muzaffarabad: A tough contest is expected between PTI’s Chaudhary shehzad Mehmood and PPP’s Syed Bazil Naqvi.
LA-29 Muzaffarabad-3: Khawja Farooq Ahmad (PTI) Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani (PML-N) Sardar Mubarak Haider (PPP).
LA-30 Muzaffarabad-4: Muhammad Rashid (PTI) Doctor Mustafa Bashir Abbasi(PML-N) Mubashar Munir Awan (PPP).
LA31 Muzaffarabad-5: Top candidates: Raja Muhammad Abdul Qayyum (PML-N), Raja Muhammad Mansoor Khan (PTI) and Chaudhry Latif Akbar (PPP). Raja Muhammad Farroq Haider of PML-N had won the election in 2016 from this constituency.
LA 32 Muzaffarabad-6: Top contestants: PML-N’s Sardar Farooq Haider, PPP’s Shahibzada Muhammad Ashfaq Zafar. AJK’s Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider had won this constituency in 2011 and 2016.
LA-33 Muzaffarabad-7: Dewan Ali Khan Chughtai(PTI) Raja Muhammad Farooq Hyder Khan (PML-N) Shaukat Javid (PPP).
LA-34 Jammu-1: Riaz Ahmad (PTI) Nasir Hussain Dar (PML-N) Sardar Zahid Iqbal (PPP).
LA-35 Jammu-2: Maqbool Ahmad (PTI) Choudhary Muhammad Ismail Gujjar (PML-N) Muhammad Iqbal Mujadadi(PPP).
LA-36 Jammu-3: Hafiz Hamid Raza (PTI) Muhammad Ishaq (PML-N) Chaudhry Shaukat Wazir Ali (PPP).
LA-37 Jammu-4: Muhammad Akmal Sargala (PTI) Muhammad Siddique Chaudhry (PML-N) Mazhar Yousif Choudhary (PPP).
LA-38 Jammu-5: Muhammad Akbar Choudhry (PML-N) Ch. Zeeshan Ali Muhammad (PML-N) Ashraf Chugtai (PPP).
LA-39 Jammu-6: Nazia Niaz (PTI) Raja Muhammad Siddique (PML-N) Chaudhry Fakhar uz Zaman Gul (PPP).
LA-40 Kashmir Valley-1: Muhammad Saleem Butt (PTI) Tahir Ali Wani (PML-N) Amir Abdul Ghaffar Lone (PPP).
LA-41 Kashmir Valley-2: Ghulam Mohi Uddin Deewan (PTI) Muhammad Ikram Butt (PML-N) Shabbir Abbas Mir (PPP).
LA-42 Kashmir Valley-3: Muhammad Asim Sharif (PTI) Syed Shaukat Ali Shah (PML-N) Hafeez Ahmed Butt (PPP).
LA-43 Kashmir Valley-4: Javed Butt (PTI) Naseema Khatoon Wani (PML-N) Azhar Hussain Gilani (PPP).
LA-44 Kashmir Valley-5: Bashir Ahmad Khan (PTI) Muhammad Ahmad Raza Qadri (PML-N) Muhammad Rashid Salam Butt (PPP).
LA-45 Kashmir Valley-6: PTI has fielded Abdul Majid Khan, while PML-N and the PPP have not placed any candidate, while Noor Ul Bari is the candidate of JI and Sumiya Sajid Raja is representing MC.
Read more: AJK ELECTIONS 2021: HERE ARE THE KEY CONSTITUENCIES TO WATCH OUT
Gallup Survey
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has emerged as the most popular party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and is likely to win the upcoming election in the region schedule on July 25, according to a survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan.
The Gallup Pakistan survey put PTI ahead of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has been placed at the third position.
According to a survey of Gallup Pakistan, 44 per cent in AJK think that PTI will win the elections while PML-N has 12 per cent and PPP 9 per cent popularity.
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