Gilgit Baltistan Election: PTI leads in counting with nine seats as no party secures majority

(Karachi) Gilgit Baltistan witnessed a scattered result trend as not a single political party managed to attain majority, local media reported on Tuesday.

As per unofficial results so far, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leads the election with nine seats followed by independent candidates who secured seven seats. However, in a major upset the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won polls on three seats while Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) only managed to win two seats. Both parties had earlier won the GB elections with a large margin.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) and Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) were the least favourite parties in recent election as they only bagged one seat each.

Meanwhile, both the PML-N and PPP accused the government of rigging the elections and stealing their mandate. PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz and PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto said that the PTI ministers used their influence in the region for rigging in the polls.

They rejected the election results and threatened to initiate a country-wide protest against the government.

As per details, a total of 745,361 voters voted for 23 constituencies across 1,160 polling stations. As part of security measures, at least 15,900 law enforcement personnel were deployed for security purposes.

Out of the 847 polling booths, 418 were declared highly sensitive, 311 sensitive and 431 normal. The area has a population of about 1.3 million.

People, both men and women, turned out in large numbers to cast their votes. The overall polling process remained peaceful.

At least 330 candidates contested this ballot exercise for the 33-member Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly. GB has 24 constituencies and its assembly has 33 seats.