Pakistan People's Party (PPP) reclaimed the National Assembly (NA-258) seat in By-elections held here on Monday. The PPP had lost the same slot in general polls 2013. According to unofficial and unconfirmed results, the PPP candidate Abdul Hakeem Baloch was gaining a clear lead over his opponents with 80000 votes. The results from a few stations were yet to be declared. The final vote count was underway till filling of this report around 10 PM.
There were 408163 registered voters in the Malir based constituency, which includes 241792 male and 166821 female voters. Polling started at official time 08 am and was ended at 5 pm without any interruption. Abdul Hakeem Baloch swept the same slot on ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) ticket in the last general elections. However the seat fell vacant when he resigned the party and joined PPP recently. This time, PML-N did not file any candidate to contest the by-polls.
As many as 287 polling stations were set-up and all were declared either sensitive or most sensitive. However, no major untoward incident was reported throughout the electoral process. Heavy contingents of police and rangers were deputed outside the polling stations to maintain law and order. The Sindh Rangers and presiding officers were given magisterial powers by the ECP.
The city's major political stakeholder - Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) alongside Pakistan Tehreek-i-Pakistan (PTI) and a banned Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ) had earlier announced boycott of the polls blaming the PPP-led provincial government of pre-poll rigging. Of the total 11 candidates including Jamat-e- Ulema-i-Islam Fazal's (JUI-F) Maulana Akram Shah and Muttahida Deeni Mahaz's (MDM) Shah Waiullah and some eight independent candidates had fought the polls.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had fixed the by-election on November 22, but due to the administrative reasons, the date was rescheduled for November 24 and was again postponed due to law enforcers' engagements at IDEAS-2016. According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) statistics, quoted by sections of print media, Baloach has been winning his constituency since 1988.
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