AJK elections scheduled for June 26

CNIC required for all voters, rangers and police called for security.

Roshan Mughal May 17, 2011

MUZAFFARABAD:

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections will be held on June 26, with 2.9 million voters eligible to cast their ballot.

AJK Chief Election Commissioner Khwaja Muhammad Saeed, a retired judge, announced the schedule at a press conference in Muzaffarabad on Monday, the first time the announcement was made from the region’s capital rather than Islamabad.

The election commission will begin accepting nomination papers on May 26, scrutinise them on May 30 and issue a final list of candidates on June 10.

Under Azad Kashmir law, parties that oppose accession to Pakistan are not allowed contest in the election. Candidates are required to have passed their matriculation examinations and may spend no more than Rs2 million on campaigning for any of the 29 seats up for grabs. They will also be required to submit a declaration of assets with their nomination papers.

The AJK election is the first where a computerised national identity card will be the only acceptable form of identification for voters. The electoral rolls have expanded by 31% since the last election.

“Rangers and police will be deployed for 12 refugee constituencies falling in four provinces.”

The term of the current assembly expires on July 23. Under AJK law, the assembly must be elected by July 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (3)

A. Chughtai | 12 years ago | Reply I was looking at a poll being done on a web-site and was surprised to see that MQM had 32% lead as compared to PPP about 14% and MC only 10%. This really tells us that voters are fed up with both our main parties and are looking for someone who can come in and clean the house. These old party leaders of Azad Kashmir had a revolving door for ever to skim money look after their own interests and do nothing for the people of Kashmir in general. No wonder a new party in political arena of AJK like MQM is being suggested as the party to form the next government. Very interesting!!

Ahmad Ali | 12 years ago | Reply I think the existing system of ballot is not good. The ballot paper must have a box at the bottom with "All on the above candidates are not eligible for this constituency. So if this option gets maximum votes, all of the candidates be restricted for 10 years to participate in elections. This is the way to get new and better faces in our politics.

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