Women vote in Dir by-poll as PPP beat JI

UPPER DIR: An alliance of opposition parties, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, on Tuesday defeated the Jamaat-e-Islami, a coalition partner of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, in the by-elections for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat PK-93 in a poll that saw women of Upper Dir exercising their right to vote for the first time in nearly 40 years.

According to unofficial results, PPP candidate Sahibzada Sanaullah secured 19,542 votes against JI’s Muhammad Azam, who bagged 14,847 votes.

The PPP had formed an alliance with other opposition parties in K-P, including the Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to contest the election against JI, for whom PK-93 has traditionally been a stronghold.

Despite the JI being a member of the ruling coalition, some disgruntled PTI workers were seen voting for the PPP candidate.

PK-93 had fallen vacant after JI lawmaker from the constituency Malik Behram was disqualified for holding a fake degree. Behram had won the seat during the May 2013 general elections by securing 12,893 votes against Sanaullah, who had bagged just 9,700 votes back then.

Two independent candidates, Jamshed Khan and Shah Faisal, were also contesting Tuesday’s by-election, but the main contest remained between Sanaullah and Azam. After unofficial results were announced, Sanaullah’s supporters resorted to celebratory aerial firing and distributed sweets.

Speaking to his supporters the PPP candidate said he aimed to develop the region. He added that he would try to reconcile differences between all political parties in the area, and that his door would be open to even those who had political differences with him.

Women suffrage in Upper Dir

The highlight of the day was women of the area voting for the first time in 38 years. According to some estimates, over 1,500 women voted on Tuesday. However, it was not a universal victory for women suffrage in the district. Majority of reports of women voting were received from the tehsils of Khal and Wari with most women polling stations wearing a deserted look for most of the day.

Low turnout

Despite having 148,000 registered voters in the constituency, the turnout remained very low.

Voting was carried out at 120 polling stations from eight in the morning to five in the evening. As many as 30 polling stations were deemed extremely sensitive while 30 had been categorised as sensitive, for which 7,000 police and security officials were deputed. Voting remained largely peaceful barring some minor scuffles.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2015.