Polling in Abbottabad witnesses thin participation

ABBOTTABAD: Polling for the general election 2024 concluded peacefully in Abbottabad district on Thursday, with thin participation compared to the previous elections.

The polling started at 8am and continued until 5pm without any break to provide maximum time for citizens to exercise their right to vote enshrined in the Constitution.

Deputy Commissioner Khalid Iqbal and DPO

Umar Tufail, along with the monitoring team, visited polling stations throughout the day and supervised the arrangements.

Thin participation was witnessed at most of the polling stations as voters’ active involvement was not seen in the city except in a few polling stations. Although a large number of polling stations were declared sensitive, where heavy police were deployed, no untoward incident was reported across the district.

According to unofficial results of 30 polling stations of the National Assembly constituency NA-16, Ali Asghar Khan, a PTI-backed independent candidate, is leading with 7,030 votes, while Murtaza Javed Abbasi of Muslim League-Nawaz came second with 6,211 votes. Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan got 2,600 votes till the filing of this report.

In NA-17, Ali Khan Jadoon, a PTI-backed independent candidate, has been leading with 2,170 votes in 32 polling stations, while his opponent Mohabat Awan of PML-N has got 1,630 votes. In the provincial assembly constituency PK-45, former speaker Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani is slightly leading against his close rival Arshid Awan of PMLN.