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Correspondent
PESHAWAR: Umar Amin Gandapur will be the next mayor of Dera Ismail Khan, the home turf of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader defeated Kafeel Nizami of the religious party by a margin of over 24,500 votes in Sunday’s election.
According to unofficial results of all 296 polling stations, Gandapur, brother of Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur, secured 63,753 votes while Nizami could manage only 38,891.
Faisal Karim Kundi of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) retained the third spot with 32,788 votes.
Interim results show PTI candidates winning the elections in six constituencies while JUI-F secured four seats in the re-polling.
The Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamaat-i-Islami managed to win one seat each.
But JUI-F pulled off a huge upset in December when its Zubair Ali — a relative of party chief Maulana Fazl ur-Rehman — defeated the ruling PTI to clinch the coveted Peshawar mayor office.
Ali secured 1,030 votes in re-polling at six polling stations. His chief rival, Rizwan Bangash of PTI, received 736 votes and Muhammad Haroon, another JUI-F candidate, won at a neighbourhood council.
Faqir Muhammad, a candidate backed by PTI, won the seat of Qadirabad council chairman.
In 231 polling stations of Nowshera, Ishaq Khattak, son of Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, came first with 49,310 votes and Hakim Ali Khel of JUI-F trailed with 41,051 votes.
The first phase of much-debated local government elections in Khyber Pakh¬tunkhwa was completed on Sunday as re-polling, as well as fresh elections, were carried out in 13 districts across the province.
The polling began at 8:00 am and continued until 5:00 pm without any pause.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), re-polling was held on seats where voting processes were terminated earlier either due to the deteriorated situation on polling day or the death of the contesting candidates.
The commission announced the voting for the second phase of polls will be held on March 31.
‘CAN’T EVEN KEEP HOME SEAT SAFE’
Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar took a jibe at JUI-F chief Rehman as he congratulated Gandapur on his victory.
The Maulana is not even capable of securing his hometown [of DI Khan] and he wishes to remove the government, Umar tweeted.
“First, he [Rehman] was defeated in [2018] general elections by the PTI and now in the local government [polls] in his hometown, Great Umar Amin Gandapur.”
