Elections in merged tribal districts: Four results announced, vote count underway

PESHAWAR: Four unofficial and unverified results have been announced  following today's elections for 16 Provincial Assembly (PA) seats in seven tribal districts of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after their merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).According to unofficial and unverified results received from PK-100, Bajaur-I, PTI's Anwar Zeb Khan was declared successful. He grabbed 13,160 votes, followed by Waheed Gul of Jamaat-e-Islami with 11,694 votes.According to the unofficial and unverified results of PK-102, Bajaur-III, Jamaat-e-Islami's Siraj-ud-Din was declared successful with 19,088 votes, followed by Hamid-ur-Rehman with 13,436 votes. Results from all 110 polling stations in PK-105, Khyber-I have been received by Geo News. Shafiq Afridi got 19,524 votes to win the seat, followed by independent candidate Shairmat Khan with 10,744. From the same constituency for the National Assembly, the federal minister Noorul Haq Qadri was elected in the recent general elections. However, in this election for the provincial assembly, his opponent was elected. The JUI's Muhammed Riaz got 12,138 votes, followed by independent candidate Jamil Khan with 11,431 votes, according to unofficial and unverified results received from PK-108, Kurram-1. PTI's Syed Iqbal Mian bagged 39,539 votes from PK-109, Kurram-II, according to unofficial and unverified results. Independent candidate Inayat Hussain is the runner-up with 22,975 votes. The polling started at 8.00 am and continued till 5.00 pm without any break.More than 2.8 million people exercised their right of vote in the historical elections, held with full security measures.Tight security measures were taken to ensure holding of the polling in a peaceful and transparent manner.Besides local police, Pakistan Army was also deployed in and outside the polling stations to help the administration in maintaining peaceful atmosphere in the elections.According to an official of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), total registered voters in these areas were 2,801,834, out of which 1,671,305 voters were male while 1,130,529 were female.The ECP had appointed eight District Returning Officers, 36 Assistant Returning Offices and 1897 Presiding Officers.The official said total 282 candidates were contesting election.He added that 28 candidates were contesting elections on seats reserved for women and non-Muslim including 22 on women seats and six on non-Muslim seats.He said the commission had set up 1,897 polling stations out of which 482 were male, 376 were female and 1,039 were combined polling stations.The official said that Army troops were deployed outside all 1897 polling stations whereas inside and outside all 554 highly sensitive polling stations.He said to encourage female voters to cast their votes more conveniently, female security staff was deployed at all female polling stations and female booths of all combined polling stations.He said ECP had already directed the provincial government for installation of CCTV cameras at all booths of 1,897 polling stations and in this regard, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) had also been issued to all concerned.He said a complaint center had been established in ECP secretariat Islamabad as well as in ECP office Peshawar.The official said the ECP had printed 2,891,000 ballot papers for 2,801,834 voters.According to updated electoral rolls, in PK-100 Bajaur-I total voters are 156,237, out of which male voters are 94,937 and female voters are 61,300, PK-101 Bajaur-II, total voters are 161,047, male voters 94,349 and female voters 66,698, PK-102 Bajaur-II total voters 216,719, male voters 125,358 and female voters are 91,361, PK-103 Mohmand –I total voters 110,477, male voters 68,469, female voters 42,008, PK-104 Mohmand-II total voters 170,022, male voters 106,749, female voters 63,273, PK-105 Khyber-I total voters 167, 484, male voters 94,514, female voters 72,970, PK-106, Khyber-II total voters 148,470, male voters 82,818, female voters 65,652, PK-107, Khyber-III total voters 216,133, male voters 123,683, female voters 92,450, PK-108, Kurram-I total voters 172,897, male voters 99,534, female voters 73,363, PK-109, Kurram-II total voters 187, 844, male voters 105,284, female voters 82,560, PK-110, Orakzai total voters 196,436, male voters 110,741, female voters 85,695, PK-111, North Waziristan-I total voters 141,053, male voters 92,845, female voters 48,208, PK-112, North Waziristan-II total voters 179,124, male voters 117,811, female voters 61,313, PK-113, South Waziristan-1 total voters 218,835, male voters 122,197, female voters 96,638, PK-114, South Waziristan-II total voters 167,994, male voters 115,572, female voters 52,422 and PK-115, ex Frontier Regions total voters 191,062, male votes 116444, female voters 74,618.