Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) commenced with the counting of votes for its third Legislative Assembly election, as polling stations closed at 5PM Sunday.
Although GB’s Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan informed the press that election authorities were yet to officially announce results, reports from various constituencies flooded news agencies with the predominant view that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) was in the lead.
Out of a total of 23 constituencies, PTI, as per unofficial reports, has declared victory in 9. Independent contestants have won in 7 constituencies while Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won in 3. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claimed victory in a total of 2 seats, with members of both PPP and PML-N protesting election results.
PTI’s candidate Raja Zakaria Khan won against PPP’s former chief minister Syed Mehdi Shah with 5,288 votes in the GBA-7, Skardu-I constituency. The party, again, won in the GBA-11, Kharmang constituency with 6,612 votes, with PTI candidate Syed Amjad Ali defeating independent candidate Syed Mohsin Rizvi.
Muhammad Khalid Khursheed of PTI won in the GBA-13, Astore 1 with 5325 votes, with PTI’s Fatta-Ullah- Khan, Nazir Ahmed, Abaidullah Baig, Shamsul Haq Lone, Raja Azam Khan winning in their respective constituencies, according to unofficial results.
Bilawal Bhutto (PPP) tweeted that his election had been ‘stolen’, with Maryam Nawaz (PML-N) terming the results as a ‘shameful defeat for the entire state power’. Meanwhile, Reham khan claims the Gilgit-Baltistan election outcome is a ‘bigger blow’ for the Kashmir cause that it is for PML-N.
This is a developing story
