By-polls: Qaumi Watan Party retains PK-22 seat

Turnout remained low because of ongoing political uncertainty.

SHABQADAR: The Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) won the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly PK-22 Charsadda-IV seat after its candidate won the by-elections held for the vacant slot on Tuesday.

The seat had fallen vacant after the death of QWP lawmaker Muhammad Ali Khan on November 2, 2012. The winning candidate is the son of late Muhammad Ali Khan.

According to official results, QWP candidate Babar Ali bagged 8,299 votes, while independent candidates Gul Youaf and Raz Muhammad Durrani obtained 7,178 and 2,068 votes respectively.



Around 85 polling stations were set up by the provincial elections commission out of which 55 were declared sensitive. The turnout, however, remained low because of the ongoing political turbulence.

The polling started at 8am and continued till 5pm. It was briefly stopped when there was a brawl among activists of contesting candidates at a station in Ucha Wala.

A large number of Frontier Constabulary personnel backed by police and elite force commandos were deployed at the polling stations along with armoured vehicles to avert untoward incidents.



The total number of registered voters was 105,666 out of which 63,816 were men and 41,850 were women. Some people were worried that their votes may not be counted given the uncertainty in the country about elections.

Earlier, a petition was filed by a local challenging the decision to hold the by-polls saying less than 120 days were left before the assembly’s tenure ends. The application, however, was later withdrawn.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2013.