PTI leads in cantonment boards elections

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 13 – The vote count has been completed for the cantonment board elections held across several cities on Sunday. The unofficial results indicate the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has emerged as the largest winner with PML-N a close runner-up. The PPP trailed far behind. The largely peaceful elections were disrupted by sporadic clashes in at least 10 of the 42 cantonment boards that went to the polls.

According to the overall results by Monday noon, these are the number of wards (within cantonments) that each party took across Pakistan:

42 cantts with 219 wards
PTI	64
PML-N	59
Indep	48
PPP	17
MQM	10
JI	7
BAP	3
ANP	2

The elections were held for Rawalpindi, Chaklala, Wah, Texila, Murree, Attock, Kamra, Jhelum, Mangla, Sargodha, Shorkot, Gujranwala, Kharian, Sialkot, Lahore, Walton, Okara, Multan, Bahawalpur, Pano Aqil, Hyderabad, Peshawar Cantt, Cherat, Risalpur, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, D. I. Khan, Abbottabad, Murree Gallies, Havelian, Quetta, Zhob, and Loralai cantonment boards as well as six cantonment boards in Karachi.

Paksarzameen Party, the PML-Q and JUI did not have any seats by the noon count Monday. Rawalpindi Walton ward’s election was postponed after the death of one of the candidates.

The police and, at some places, the Rangers provided security as 1,560 candidates competed for 206 cantonment boards seats across the country.

Before the Sunday polls, at least four candidates return unopposed in Punjab while elections were not held at 4 wards in the Kamra cantonment board due to a boycott.

The polling began at 8 am on Sunday and continued uninterrupted until 5 pm. The elections were largely peaceful and no security breach was reported.

However, in some cities, political clashes marred the elections.

Results

Numbers

Immediately after the polling ended the counting began and unofficial unconfirmed results poured in. SAMAA TV announced results for 206 seats early Monday.

Unofficial provisional results show at least 64 PTI candidates have returned. Independent candidates won 48 seats. PMLN grabbed 59 seats while PPP bagged 17 seats, including 13 from Karachi. MQMP secured 10 seats. JI was able to secure five seats. ANP grabbed one seat from Peshawar. BAP won two Zhob seats.

PSP, PMLQ, and JUIF were unable to win a single seat.

		Total	64	0	17	59	48	3	10	2	7
	Total wards	results	PTI	JUI	PPP	PMLN	IND	BAP	MQM	ANP	JI
Bannu	2	2	2	–	–	–
Manora	2	2	–	–	2	–
Multan	10	10				1	9
Zhob	2	2						2
Pano Aqil	2	1					1
Abotabad	10	10	4		1	3	2
Kharian	2	2	2
Noshera Cantt	4	4	2				2
Loralai	2	2					1	1
Murree Cantt	2	2	1			1
Kohat	3	3	1				2
Shorkot Cantt	2	2					2
Faisal Cantt	10	10	6		1	1	1				1
Peshawar	5	5	1		2		1			1
Havelian	2	2	1			1
Gujranwala	10	10	6			2	2
Hyderabad	10	10			3				7
Murree Galli	2	2	1			1
Quetta	5	5	3				2
Attock Cantt	2	2					2
Kamra Cantt	5	1					1
Attock Sanjwal	2	2					2
Jhelum	2	2	2
Mangla	2	2				1	1
Sialkot	5	5	2			3
Risalpur	3	3	3
Malir	10	10	5		2		1				2
Taxila	5	5	2			3
Bahawalpur	5	5	2			3
Lahore Cantt	10	10	3			6	1
Lahore Walton	10	9				9
Sargodha	10	10	3			2	5
DI Khan	2	2	2
Mardan	2	2					1			1
Cheerat	2	2	2
Clifton	10	10	2		4						2
Karachi Cantt	5	5			1		2		2
Korangi	5	5	1		1	2			1
Wah Cantt	10	10	2			8
rawalpindi cant	10	9				7	2
Okara	5	5	1				4
Chaklala	10	10	2			5	1				2

Election upsets

Some of the contests were neck and neck while some others led to upsets, especially for the PTI.

In Karachi’s Defence and Clifton, people did not vote for the PTI and PPP became the largest party with 13 seats.

Karachi cantonments	Wards or seats
Faisal	10
Clifton	10
Malir	10
Karachi	5
Korangi	5
Manora	2
Total	42

In Multan, ten seats were up for grab. However, the voters rejected almost all candidates fielded by political parties, electing 9 independent candidates. Only one PML-N candidate could secure the 10th seat.

In Malir cantonment board’s ward 7, PTI’s Wasif Shah won by just one vote. The candidates from PPP and MQMP obtained 272 votes each.

The names of Karachi’s winning candidates

Cantonment	Ward	Returned candidate	Votes	Party
Clifton	1	Ameer Shah (PPP)	2,917	PPP
	2	Anwar Zaib (PPP)	720	PPP
	3	M. Jameel	877	Independent
	4	Pervaiz Ghaffar Rajwani	501	PTI
	5	Rehan Iqbal	433	JI
	6	Shagufta Nasreen	490	PTI
	7	M Zakar Mehnti	875	JI
	8	Babar Jamal	1,434	Independent
	9	A. Hameed Baloch	2,307	PPP
	10	Muhammad Najeeb	1,893	PPP
Karachi cantt	1	M. Danish	773	PPP
	2	Ch. Nasir Ali Khan	530	Indep
	3	M. Ayub Khan	680	Indep
	4	Munir Yalson	667	MQM-P
	5	Munawar A. Qureshi	1,969	MQM-P
Faisal	1	Javed Khan	1,049	PPP
	2	Syed Ibnul Hassan Hashmi	1,164	JI
	3	M. Rafi Chawla	694	Indep
	4	Ali Ashiq Gujjar	402	PML-N
	5	S. Kashif Haider Zaidi	753	PTI
	6	Habib ur Rehman	716	PTI
	7	Zeeshan Bashir	1,077	PTI
	8	SM Tariq Ashrafi	675	PTI
	9	Mir Bilal Ahmed	1,037	PTI
	10	Shakeel Ahmed	800	PTI
Malir	1	Malik Muhd Raza	559	JI
	2	Afsar Khan	324	PTI
	3	Imran Khan	737	Indep
	4	Malik Amanullah Khan	365	PTI
	5	Zartash M. Malik	266	PPP
	6	Ali Gohar	958	PPP
	7	Muhd. Wasif Shah	273	PTI
	8	Ali Akber	532	PTI
	9	Ahmed Yasir	440	JI
	10	Jahanzaib	547	PTI
Korangi	1	M. Adnan	610	MQM-P
	2	M. Shaukat	824	PML-N
	3	Kamran Khan	828	PTI
	4	M. Amir Abbasi	497	PPP
	5	Malik Javed Iqbal	182	PML-N
Manora	1	M. Tayyab	391	PPP
	2	M Fazal Khan	575	PPP

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Clashes

Sialkot

At ward 4 in the Sialkot cantonment board, the opposition PMLN and the ruling PTI workers confronted each other. Slogans were chanted followed by heated exchanges.

Gujranawala

In Gujranwala, the PTI workers took at a man they believed was one of their rivals and beat him. The victim, however, turned out to be a PTI supporter.

In the city, construction workers were seen paving a street with tuff titles as a part of what, they said, was development work being carried out by PTI candidate Sajid Akram.  

Multan

In Multan, clashes were reported in ward 4 where confrontation soon turned into an active fight that involved kicks and punches. Women workers also got embroiled. The police had to use force to push the battling workers out from the polling station.

Rawalpindi

At Rawalpindi cantonment board’s ward 1, the clash erupted over setting up a camp at a polling station.

Chaklala

In the Chaklala cantonment board elections, PTI and PMLN workers clashed in ward 8. Political workers accused the presiding officer of collaborating with the ruling party.

Peshawar

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) city of Peshawar workers from three major political parties PPP, ANP and JI clashed among them in ward-2 and ward 5. They chanted slogans against rivals and milled around the polling stations. It caused traffic blockage with vehicles forming long queues.

PPP supporters alleged the PTI women MPAs had bribed voters with Rs5,000 each.

Abbottabad

In Abbottabad, another major city in KP, workers from PMLN and PTI got involved in a heated exchange at ward 10.

Hyderabad

In Hyderabad polling was delayed at a women polling station in ward 2. An old woman alleged the delay was caused by political workers forcing voters to cast ballots in favour of particular candidates.

Faisal Cantonment Board, Karachi

In cantonment board Faisal, political workers protested and chanted slogans when Federal Minister Ali Zaid entered a polling station. Workers from PPP and other parties alleged that Ali Zaidi’s visit violated the code of conduct laid out by the ECP.

The ECP officials made Zaidi leave the area.

PPP’s provincial minister Said Ghani posted a video of Zaidi at the polling station. However, he soon deleted the video after Zaid said he had gone to the polling station to cast his ballot.

Malir Cantonment Board, Karachi

The police and Rangers also responded to a situation in the Malir cantonment board after workers from rival political parties clashed.

Quetta

In Quetta, at one of the polling stations, supporters of the PTI and Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) clashed when a woman was barred from voting.

Governor tells journalists they violated code of conduct

The Sindh Governor Imran Ismail cast his vote at a polling station in Defence in the cantonment board Clifton. However, he arrived with his protocol in toe.

When a reporter asked if the governor had violated the code of conduct by bringing his entourage to the polling station, Ismail replied, “It is you who is violating the code of conduct.”