Gilgit Baltistan Election 2009

The maiden elections for Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly under the newly introduced package were held on Thursday in the seven districts of Gilgit-Baltistan amid tightened security arrangements, wherein PPP has emerged as winning majority seats of the Assembly.

According to initial but unofficial results, PPP has bagged 11 seats followed by PML-N, PML-Q with two seats each while two independent candidates have also returned successful.

MQM and JUI-F have also bagged one seat each for the first time in the history of the Gilgit-Baltistan. Heavy contingents of law enforcement agencies including army, paramilitary forces and police were deployed across Gilgit-Baltistan to avoid any untoward incident during the voting. However, reports of violence and killing of three people were received from different parts of the area till filing of the report.

The polling started at 8:00am and continued till 4:00pm without any interval. Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), PML-Q and PML-N accused PPP of massive rigging in the polls by using official machinery. Federal Minister for Port and Shipping Babar Ghauri alleged that PPP workers led by its candidates tortured MQM workers and its candidates in different parts of Baltistan.

President PPP Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah won from LA-7 Skardu by defeating Wazir Walayat of PML-Q. He bagged 5596 votes. Secretary General PPP Ghulam Mohammad was defeated by an independent candidate Mohammad Shah with significant margin in LA-21 Ghizer-Yasin.

PPP’s Wazir Baig returned successful from LA-6 Gilgit by defeating MQM candidate Kamil Jan with a narrow margin. Wazir Shakeel won LA-9 Skardu seat by defeating his rival candidate, Fida Mohammad Nashad. PPP candidate Engineer Mohammad Ismail won from Ghanche.

A JUI candidate, Haji Gulbar Khan returned successful from LA-18 Diamer by defeating former speaker Legislative Assembly Malik Maskeen. In LA-23 Ghance PML-N candidate Mufti Abdullah won the seat by defeating his rival candidate Amna Insari. LA-8 Skardu PPP candidate Sheikh Nisar returned successful. PML-N Jafarullah won LA-1 Gilgit and Independent candidate Didar Ali defeated PPP candidate Jamil Khan in LA-2 Giligit.

The Thursday elections were held in 23 constituencies in Gilgit-Baltistan out of the total 24 general seats, as polling on GBL-21 Ghizer was postponed due to the death of MQM candidate Sher Bahdur.

Thursday’s elections were the first after the broad-based reforms introduced in the area under the “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order-2009″, as the Legislative Assembly would have more legislative, executive and financial powers to exercise. Keeping in view the importance of the elections, all the national parties including PPP, PMM-N, PML-Q, MQM, ANP, JUI-F, PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami have fielded their candidates in the elections. Mainstream leadership of these political parties visited the area to lead the election campaign of their respective parties.

source: geo news