PTI retains PP-218 seat after close battle with PPP

MULTAN:  

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate Malik Wasif Mazhar Raan won a closely-contested by-election against Pakistan Peoples Party’s Malik Arshad Raan on Punjab Assembly’s PP-218 seat in Multan on Sunday.

According to unofficial and unverified results, the PTI candidate secured 48,988 votes while his PPP competitor, who was contesting the by-poll with the support of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), managed to bag 39,486 votes, Express News reported.

The polling process for the by-election concluded peacefully amid tight security arrangements.

According to official sources, the voters who had entered the premises of polling station were allowed to continue casting their votes even after the official time ended. However, no untoward incident took place, they added.

As many as 1,887 police officers were deputed at the polling stations to ensure law and order. Police had also set up a special control room at Makhdoom Rasheed police station to monitor security arrangements.

City Police Officer (CPO) Imran Mahmood also visited different polling stations to check security arrangements.

A total of 138 polling stations including 25 for male, 24 female and 89 combined were set up in the constituency, where 203,188 registered voters including 111,918 male and 91,270 female were expected to exercise their right to vote.

Besides the PTI and PPP candidates, Malik Shahid Abbas Raan, Muhammad Tufail, Muhammad Ramzan and Muhammad Israrul Haq Cheema – all independent candidates — contested the by-election.

The Punjab Assembly seat fell vacant after the death of MPA Malik Mazhar Abbas Raan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He was elected as MPA by securing 45,817 votes in the 2018 general elections while his rival candidates Malik Muhammad Abbas of PPP bagged 37,417 votes and PML-N candidate Zaffar Ahmed obtained 25,000 votes.

*Additional input from APP