Polling in the second phase of the general elections to the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly began at 8 am on Sunday and will continue without a break till 5 pm. In this phase, voting is being held in a total of 21 constituencies, including 9 seats in the Muzaffarabad division and 12 seats of refugees settled in different provinces, where more than 300 candidates are in the fray.
The election process is being completed in three phases due to security arrangements. After the first phase, tensions were seen in the political atmosphere after objections were raised regarding the transparency of the elections in some constituencies, especially differences between the government’s coalition parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
The PPP has reiterated its complaints regarding the first phase of polling and demanded action from the Election Commission. The party maintains that the election process was affected due to delay in deployment of staff in some constituencies, prevention of entry of polling agents and administrative problems, on which formal applications have also been submitted to the concerned authorities.
Meanwhile, consultations were also ongoing at the federal level in the context of the election situation. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif discussed the political situation and alliance issues, while leaders of the two parties also held contacts regarding some controversial constituencies.
According to the Azad Kashmir Election Commission, 1,483 polling stations have been set up in the Muzaffarabad division for more than 800,000 registered voters. In addition, more than 438,000 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 12 refugee seats established in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad. The commission said that additional security has been deployed at polling stations declared sensitive so that the election process can be completed peacefully.
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