Fresh voting got underway at 8am on Saturday across 23 polling stations in two constituencies of Bagh district, part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, after the Election Commission had earlier withheld results due to disrupted polling. The AJK repolling in Bagh is set to run until 5pm and covers constituencies LA-15 (Bagh Central) and LA-16 (Eastern Bagh).
The commission’s decision to hold repolling came after voting failed to take place at several stations during the third phase of elections held earlier in the week.
Standings Before the Repolling
In LA-15, PPP’s Sardar Ziaul Qamar had led with 16,637 votes when the earlier phase concluded, ahead of PML-N’s Mushtaq Ahmed Minhas, who had secured 15,015 votes. Jamaat-i-Islami’s candidate, retired Brig Dr Muhammad Khan, followed with 12,259 votes. The Election Commission withheld the final result for this seat because nine polling stations had been unable to conduct voting.
A similar situation played out in LA-16, where the commission paused the declaration after voting was interrupted at 14 stations representing a combined 7,238 registered voters. Ahead of the disruption, PML-N candidate Sardar Mir Akbar held a lead of 19,515 votes, putting him roughly 3,225 votes clear of PPP’s Sardar Qamaruz Zaman.
Allegations of Rigging Surface
All five candidates contesting the two seats have accused their opponents of widespread rigging during the process, adding further scrutiny to the AJK repolling in Bagh. Despite these claims, AJK’s Chief Election Commissioner, retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, said that robust security measures were in place to allow voters to cast ballots safely, noting that police and other law enforcement personnel had been stationed at polling sites.
Part of a Broader, Staggered Election Process
This round of voting forms part of the third phase of the AJK elections, which authorities have carried out in stages because of ongoing unrest and law-and-order challenges in the region. The third phase had initially been planned to cover all 11 constituencies within Poonch Division, but the Election Commission limited polling to Bagh and Haveli districts due to security concerns.
In earlier voting, the commission confirmed the result for LA-14 (Bagh-I), also called Dhirkot, where Jammu Kashmir Awami Dast-o-Bazu Party’s Sajid Iqbal Abbasi secured a decisive win with 40,522 votes.
Meanwhile, the outcome in LA-17 (Haveli), the seat contested by AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, remains unresolved. PML-N’s Engr Mohsin Aziz has formally challenged Rathore’s declared victory. After hearing arguments from both sides on Thursday, the chief election commissioner reserved his ruling on the matter.