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Correspondent
SWAT: PTI’s Fazl Mula on Sunday managed to flip a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat, won by ANP in 2018, after defeating the former’s candidate in the PK-7 Swat election.
Unofficial results from 124 polling stations showed Mula secured 17,395 votes while ANP’s candidate Hussain Ahmed came in second with 14,604 votes. Ahmed had supported of the PPP, PML-N, QWP, JUI-F and others in the by-poll. The PK-7 Swat seat fell vacant after ANP’s member of the provincial assembly (MPA) Waqar Ahmad Khan passed away on April 30, this year. As per the Constitution, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is required to hold a by-election on any lawmaker’s seat within 60 days from it having fallen vacant.
A day earlier, the ECP — in a statement — had said that it expected a tough contest between the four candidates out of which the PTI and ANP candidates were expected to be neck and neck.
The constituency has 183,308 voters in total out of which 100,288 are male and 81,220 are female.
The ECP had set up a total of 124 polling stations in the constituency with 308 booths.
Soon after the unofficial results came in, the ANP rejected PTI’s victory and announced that it would challenge the result after holding consultations.
ANP leader Aimal Wali Khan said that the results given to the polling agents on Form 45 were different from the ones shown in the government results.
Khan also questioned why the ECP was quiet on the use of government machinery and the release of funds overnight.
