People in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s newly merged districts cast their votes to elect provincial representatives on Saturday for the first time in history. The unofficial and unverified results are out.

Independents grabbed the highest number of seats: six out of 16. The PTI won five, JUI-F three and JI and ANP won one each.

Sixteen seats were being contested in seven districts. Of the 285 candidates standing for the election, 202 were independent candidates. There are over 2.8 million registered voters in the area, of which 1.13 million are women.

At 16, the PTI had the most candidates contesting the election from a political party. The JUI-F had 15 candidates, ANP had 14, PPP and JI both had 13 and the PML-N had five candidates. Two women were also contesting the election – the ANP’s Naheed Afridi in PK-106 Khyber and JI’s Malasa Bibi in PK-108 Kurram.

A total of 1,897 polling stations had been set up across the merged districts. Of these, 482 had been reserved for men, 376 for women, and 1,049 were combined. Pakistan Army, police and Frontier Constabulary personnel had been deployed at polling stations across the seven districts.

Results

The seven districts had been divided into 16 provincial assembly constituencies. The unofficial and unverified results reported so far are:

PK-100 Bajaur I

PTI’s Anwarzeb Khan has won with 12,951 votes, while JI’s Maulana Waheed Gul is in second with 11,775 votes.

PK-101 Bajaur II

PTI’s Ajmal Khan is victorious with 12,194 votes to JI’s Haroon Rasheed’s 10,468.

PK-102 Bajaur III

JI’s Sirajuddin won with 19,088 votes. PTI’s Hameedur Rehman received 13,436 votes.

PK-103 Mohmand I

ANP leader Nisar Mohmand is victorious with 11,247 votes to PTI candidate Rahim Shah’s 9,669.

PK-104 Mohmand II

Independent candidate Malik Abbas Rehman has won.

PK-105 Khyber I

The unofficial results of all 110 polling stations have come in. Independent candidate Shafiq Sher Afridi has won the seat with 19,733 votes, while independent candidate Shermat Khan is second with 10,745 votes.

PK-106 Khyber II

The unofficial results of all 89 polling stations have arrived. Independent candidate Bilal Afridi has won with 12,814 votes, while PTI’s Amir Khan Afridi is second with 6,561 votes.

PK-107 Khyber III

Independent candidate Shafique-ur-Rehman is victorious with 9,796 votes. The runner up was another independent candidate, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, who secured 8,428 votes.



PK-108 Kurram I

JUI-F’s Muhammad Riaz has emerged victorious.

PK-109 Kurram II

PTI’s Syed Iqbal Mian won with 12,589 votes. Independent candidate Inayat Ali Tori is in second place with 7,816 votes.

PK-110 Orakzai

Independent candidate Ghazi Ghazan Jamal won with 18,448 votes. PTI’s Shoaib Hassan got 14,699 votes.

PK-111 North Waziristan I

PTI’s Muhammad Iqbal has won with 10,200 votes, while JUI’s Maulana Samiuddin is behind him with 9,288 votes. Independent candidate Jamal Abid Al Nasir is in third with 5834.

PK-112 North Waziristan II

Independent candidate Mir Kalam Wazir won with 12,057 votes. JUI-F’s Mir Sadiqullah is second with 7,978 votes, closely followed by PTI’s Aurangzeb Khan who has 4,130 votes.

PK-113 South Waziristan I

According to the results from all 139 polling stations, JUI-F’s Hafiz Assamuddin has won the polls with 10,356 votes. PTI’s Afsar Khan trailed with 5,140 vote.

PK-114 South Waziristan II

PTI’s Naseerullah has emerged victorious with 11,114 votes, while independent candidate Arif Wazir has bagged 10,272 votes.

PK-115 Ex-Frontier regions

JUI-F’s Mohammad Shoaib won with 18,102 votes. PTI’s Abid Rehman received a close 12,028.

Updates

Polling has begun in Bajaur’s PK-100, PK-101 and PK-102. A huge turnout is being reported at the polling stations.

Polling has begun in Mohmand’s PK-103 and PK-104. A fierce competition is expected between the PTI, JUI-F and ANP in the area.

Polling was temporarily stopped in PK-105 Khyber’s Landi Kotal after a fight broke out between independent candidate Shafiq Sher and ANP workers outside the Government Girls High School polling station. The police and security forces broke up the fight and more policemen were called in.

Polling has also begun in PK-106’s Jamrud where the PTI’s Ameer Ahmed is going up against independent candidate Bilal Afridi. In Jamrud, lots of older voters are being seen. The number of voters is decreasing as the heat increases.

Polling has begun in PK-110 Orakzai, where 196,136 votes are registered. There are 24 candidates contesting the elections in the district. The main contest is between independent candidate Ghazan Jamal and PTI’s Shoaib Hassan. Twenty-three polling stations have been set up in Kohat for internally displaced persons from PK-110 Orakzai. A rush is being reported at these stations as lots of people have come to vote.

Polling has begun in Miranshah’s PK-111. The contest in the district is between independent candidate Mir Kalam, JUI-F candidate Mufti Siddiq Ullah and PTI candidate Malik Aurangzeb.

Polling has begun in North Waziristan’s PK-112. In Miranshah, a rush is being reported at the women’s polling stations.

Polling is under way in South Waziristan’s PK-113 and PK-114. Approximately 218,835 registered voters in PK-113 and 167,994 in PK-114 will head to the polling stations today. A total of 237 polling stations have set up in the entire district. The main contest in PK-113 will be between JUI-F candidate Maulana Asaamuddin and independent candidate Brigadier (retd) Qayyum Sher. In PK-114 the contest is between the PTI’s Naseerullah and independent candidate Muhammad Arif.

Polling has begun in PK-115. A total of 163 polling stations have been set up in the area, of which 81 have been declared extremely sensitive.

Adviser to the KP chief minister Ajmal Wazir told SAMAA TV that these elections are the result of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision and CM Mahmood Khan’s direction. He counted the lack of incidents in the area as their biggest success. He said PM Khan is the first prime minister to visit the districts and hold rallies in the area.

Regarding the opposition’s — particularly Bilawal Bhutto Zardari — claims that they were not allowed to campaign in the area properly, he said the PPP held a rally in South Waziristan recently in which senior leaders like Farhatullah Babar participated. They held a rally in one of the most sensitive areas, he said, adding that the opposition has no proof to back up their accusations.

Wazir said the KP government has the clear cut stance that they will welcome whoever wins the election and treat them as if they are their own members.

Reporting by Abdul Rahman, Ahmed Nawaz Mughal, Basit Gilani, Fakhar Ul Islam, Fayaz Ahmed, Haji Mujtaba, Hasban Ullah, Khan Zamir, Kiftayatullah Paracha and Sajjad Haider. Follow SAMAA English on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.