Independents bag six, PTI five seats in tribal polls

PESHAWAR: The independent candidates and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led the first-ever provincial elections by obtaining six and five seats, respectively for the 16 general seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in the seven tribal districts and erstwhile Frontier Regions (FRs).

According to unofficial Form 47 results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday, the ruling PTI remained second in the election by obtaining five seats.

Similarly, the independents led the election by grabbing six seats in the first-ever provincial assembly elections of the newly merged tribal districts.

As per the ECP’s Form 47 results, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) obtained three seats and Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) got one seat each in the elections.

As per the initial results received from returning officers, the PTI’s Anwar Zeb was declared returned candidate on PK-100 Bajaur-I by obtaining 12, 951 votes, while JI’s Waheed Gul remained runner-up candidate by obtaining 11, 775 votes.

PTI’s Ajmal Khan remained winning candidate on PK-101 Bajaur-II by getting 12,194 votes, while JI’s candidate Sahibzada Abdur Rashid remained runner up by obtaining 10, 468 votes.

JI’s Sirajuddin was declared returned candidate on PK-102 Bajaur-III by obtaining 19,088 votes, while PTI’s candidate Hameedur Rehman remained runner-up by receiving 13, 436 votes.

ANP’s candidate Nisar Muhammad was declared returned candidate on PK-103 Mohmand-I by getting 11, 247 votes and PTI’s Rahim Shah remained runner-up by obtaining 9, 669 votes.

On PK-104 Mohmand-II an independent candidate Abbasur Rehman was declared returned by obtaining 11, 751 votes, while JUI-F candidate Muhammad Arif was the runner-up by getting 9, 801 votes.

An independent candidate, Shafiq Afridi was declared returned candidate on PK-105 Khyber-I by obtaining 19, 733 votes, while another independent candidate Shermat Khan remained runner-up by obtaining 10, 745 votes.

Independent candidate Bilawal Afridi was declared successful on PK-106 Khyber-II by obtaining 12, 814 votes. The independent candidate Khan Shahid Afridi remained runner-up by getting 6, 297 votes.

On PK-107 Khyber-III, an independent candidate Muhammad Shafiq was declared successful candidate by obtaining 9, 796 votes, while PTI’s Muhammad Zubair was runner-up by getting 6, 375 votes. JUI-F’s Muhammad Riaz was declared as a returned candidate on PK-108 Kurram-I by obtaining 11, 948 votes, while an independent candidate Jamil Khan remained runner-up by obtaining 11, 517 votes.

PTI’s Syed Iqbal Mian was declared returned candidate on PK-109 Kurram-II by obtaining 39, 536 votes, while an independent candidate Inayat Ali was second by obtaining 22, 975 votes.

An independent candidate Syed Ghazi Ghazan Jamal was declared as a returned candidate on PK-110 Orakzai by grabbing 18, 448 votes, while PTI’s Shoaib Hassan remained runner up by obtaining 14, 699 votes.

PTI’s Muhammad Iqbal Khan remained returned candidate on PK-111 North Waziristan-I by obtaining 10,200 votes, while JUI-F’s Samiuddin remained runner up by obtaining 9, 288 votes.

An independent candidate Mir Kalam Khan was declared returned candidate on PK-112 North Waziristan-II by obtaining 12, 057 votes, while JUI-F’s Sadiqullah remained runner up by getting 7, 978 votes.

JUI-F’s Hafiz Asamuddin remained returned candidate on PK-113 South Waziristan-I by obtaining 10, 356 votes, while an independent candidate Waheed Khan remained runner up by getting 9, 679 votes.

PTI’s candidate Naseerullah Khan remained returned candidate on PK-114 South Waziristan-II by obtaining 11, 114 votes, while an independent candidate Muhammad Arif remained runner-up by getting 10, 272 votes. JUI-F’s Muhammad Shoaib was declared successful candidate on PK-115 Ex-Frontier Regions by obtaining 18, 102 votes, while PTI Abidur Rehman remained runner up by getting 18, 028 votes.

Interestingly, the two women candidates, who contested the election from political parties, grabbed a few votes in the election. The JI’s woman candidate Malasa only got 17 votes, contesting the election on PK-109 Kurram-II.

Similarly, ANP’s woman candidate Naheed obtained only 194 votes, while contesting her election on PK-106 Khyber-II.

However, the security of both the women candidates submitted with the ECP for contesting the election was forfeited as they failed to get 12.5 percent votes of the total votes.

According to Section 43 of the Representation of People Act 1976, any candidate who fails to get one-eighth (12.5 per cent) of the total votes cast in a constituency from where they contested the polls, would have to forego the security deposit.

Similarly, the turnout is also encouraging as mostly percentage of votes cast remained between 24 to 39 percent in the election. However, PK-109 Kurram was on top in terms of percentage as 40.09 percent votes were cast out of total votes, while 16.14 percent votes were cast in PK-113 South Waziristan-I, which is the lowest turnout in terms of percentage of the votes cast. However, women voters percentage was also encouraging in the first-ever provincial election in the erstwhile Fata.