The vote counting process has commenced following the conclusion of polling in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly elections. The Chief Election Commissioner extended the polling period by one hour beyond the scheduled 5pm deadline, responding to requests from voters and political parties concerned about turnout. Consequently, polling officially ended at 6pm.
Election officials indicated that the reception and transmission of election results will proceed in stages. The Election Commission will declare the final outcomes in accordance with established procedures.
In a significant development, the first phase of elections took place in 13 constituencies within the Mirpur Division. The division had 1,400,437 registered voters, comprising 724,811 males and 675,626 females.
For this phase, 2,316 polling stations were set up, including 1,241 classified as highly sensitive and 724 as sensitive.
Unofficial results have started to emerge from various constituencies:
In LA-1 Mirpur-1, data from 62 of 139 polling stations show PML-N candidate Azhar Sadiq leading with 8,271 votes, followed by PPP’s Muhammad Afzal Shahid with 4,048 votes.
LA-2 Mirpur-2 reports results from 109 of 149 polling stations, with PPP candidate Qasim Majeed ahead at 9,300 votes, while PML-N’s Azeem Bakhsh Chaudhry trails with 5,400 votes.
In LA-3 Mirpur-3, unofficial tallies from 123 of 161 stations place PPP’s Chaudhry Yasir Sultan in the lead with 10,563 votes, followed by PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed at 7,008 votes.
LA-4 Mirpur-4 results from three polling stations indicate PML-N’s Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed leading with 454 votes, with PPP’s Chaudhry Sohaib Arshad at 290 votes.
In LA-5 Bhimber-1, results from 104 of 176 stations show PML-N’s Waqar Ahmed Noor ahead with 19,592 votes, with PPP’s Chaudhry Pervez Ashraf close behind at 16,335 votes.
LA-6 Bhimber-2 results from 24 of 195 stations reveal PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Razzaq leading with 3,814 votes, followed by IPP candidate Ali Shan Chaudhry at 3,351 votes.
In LA-7 Bhimber-3, results from all 50 polling stations show PML-N’s Chaudhry Tariq Farooq in front with 8,789 votes, while independent candidate Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq has 5,359 votes.
LA-8 Kotli-1 results from 141 of 155 stations have PPP’s Malik Zafar leading with 18,543 votes, with PML-N’s Malik Muhammad Nawaz second at 11,093 votes.
LA-9 Kotli-2 reports results from one polling station, where PML-N candidate Umair Naeem leads with 534 votes, followed by PPP’s Javed Iqbal Budhanvi with 25 votes.
In LA-10 Kotli-3, results from 36 of 169 polling stations show PPP’s Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin ahead with 6,999 votes, with PML-N’s Fateh Mahmood-ul-Hassan in second place at 3,560 votes.
LA-11 Kotli-4 results from two polling stations indicate PPP candidate Chaudhry Muhammad Akhlaq leading with 254 votes, while PML-N’s Muhammad Asif has 148 votes.
LA-12 Kotli-5 results from 96 of 207 polling stations place PPP’s Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin in the lead with 14,411 votes, narrowly ahead of PML-N’s Muhammad Riasat Khan with 13,151 votes.
Finally, in LA-13 Kotli-6, results from 110 of 193 polling stations show PML-N’s Raja Ayaz Ahmed Khan leading with 13,063 votes, with PPP’s Muhammad Waleed Inqalabi second at 8,995 votes.
