Voting for the first phase of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly elections will take place on Monday (Tomorrow) across 13 constituencies in Mirpur Division, where more than 1.4 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots.
The Election Commission has registered 1,401,439 male and female voters for the elections. Polling is going on in six constituencies of Kotli, three in Bhimber and four in Mirpur district.
Kotli has a maximum number of voters, there are approximately 647,000 registered voters for six seats in the assembly. There are about 342,000 electorates in Bhimber’s three constituencies to elect its representatives, while the electorate of Mirpur district is nearly 411,000 to elect their four representatives from the assembly.
The division is having 296 candidates contest the elections. There are 135 candidates in the Kotli Assembly, 63 in Bhimber Assembly and 98 in Mirpur Assembly. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) AJK, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) AJK, Istehkam Pakistan Party and other political groups are all potential contenders.
Election Commission has set up 2,554 polling stations and 3,701 polling booths in the whole division of Mirpur, in order to facilitate the voting process.
District Returning Officers in Mirpur, Bhimber and Kotli are now done with arrangements to deliver election materials like ballot papers to polling stations in advance of the polling day.
Security has also been tightened with over 16,000 police personnel deployed in the division to ensure peaceful and orderly polling according to DIG Police Kamran Ali.
The Election Commission has also observed its code of conduct by ensuring that all kinds of election related activities, be it any public meeting, rally or corner gathering, stopped from midnight on October 25-26. Before polling, political parties and candidates have been asked to abide by the restrictions to the fullest.
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