• Ruling party bags NA seats in Lahore, D.G. Khan, Sahiwal, Faisalabad; candidates lead other contests in Faisalabad, Haripur as per initial, unofficial results
• PPP wins one Punjab seat; five go to PML-N, with latter’s lead in PP-98 race
• ECP chief downplays low participation, says voters not interested due to low stakes
• PTI alleges rigging in Lahore and Haripur; boycotts all other contests
LAHORE / HARIPUR / ISLAMABAD: After polls closed in by-elections across 13 constituencies — for six national and seven provincial assembly seats — in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the ruling PML-N bagged almost all seats, except for one in Muzzafargarh, which was secured by the PPP, unofficial results showed in the early hours of Monday morning.
The PML-N was also leading the polls in three other constituencies: two national and provincial seats in Faisalabad and one NA seat in Haripur, where the unofficial results had not been announced till the filing of this report.
The six NA constituencies where polling was conducted included NA-18 (Haripur), NA-96 and NA-104 (Faisalabad), NA-129 (Lahore), NA-143 (Sahiwal) and NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan). The seven Punjab Assembly constituencies up for grabs included PP-73 (Sargodha), PP-87 (Mianwali), PP-98, PP-115, PP-116 (Faisalabad), PP-203 (Sahiwal), and PP-269 (Muzaffargarh).
Amid an opposition boycott and low voter turnout, the by-polls were held in response to the disqualification of a number of PTI lawmakers following their conviction in May 9 violence cases. The main opposition PTI, however, stayed away from the electoral exercise, save for two National Assembly constituencies in Lahore and Haripur. The PML-N fielded its candidates on all seats except in Muzaffargarh, and the PPP contested on two NA and one Punjab seat.
By Sunday night, the PML-N was in a position to win all the Punjab seats, except for PP-269, where the ruling party had not fielded a candidate against PPP’s Alamdar Qureshi.
According to Form-47 issued after midnight, PML-N candidate Mahmood Qadir Khan defeated PPP’s Dost Mohammad Khosa by securing 82,419 votes against his rival’s 49,226 votes in NA-185. In Lahore’s NA-129, Mohammad Nauman of the PML-N emerged victorious with 63,441 votes while independent Arslan Ahmad got 29,099 votes.
The ruling party also bagged the Sahiwal NA-143 seat, as its candidate secured 119,334 votes as per the unofficial results. Even before the Form-47 was issued, PM Shehbaz Sharif had congratulated Tufail Jutt, saying, “Undoubtedly, with the victory in NA-143, the public has expressed its trust in the spirit of public service of the PML-N.” In a tweet, he also congratulated the Lahore and Sahiwal provincial assembly candidates.
In NA-104, PML-N’s Danyal Ahmad bagged 52,791 votes against independent candidate Rana Adnan Javed’s 19,262 votes.
In NA-96, PML-N’s Mohammad Bilal Badar secured 61,808 votes while independent candidate Nawab Sher Waseer secured 29,805 votes, according to results from 247 out of 345 polling stations.
On the other hand, the PTI claimed to have secured a lead in Haripur, citing results from 341 polling stations. PTI insiders claimed that their candidates bagged 102,136 against Babar Nawaz’s tally of 78,066 votes, citing results from 341 polling stations.
However, by the time this report went to press, results from 292 out of 602 polling stations had been shared by the ECP on its media dashboard, showing PML-N candidate Babar Nawaz ahead with 81,655 votes against Shehrnaz Ayub’s 56,981 votes.
