Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Monday emerged as the two major parties and having a close fight in the polls conducted in the 39 Cantonment Boards across the country, a key contest at the local level ahead of the 2023 General Elections, according to media reports on Monday.
Polling was held on Sunday in the Cantonment Boards in Pakistan. The polling began at 8 am and continued until 5 pm without any break, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Cantonment Boards are semi elected bodies tasked to take care of civic work in cantonments.
Though the result has not been declared officially, media reports showed the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerging on the top, closely followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Geo News reported that according to the preliminary, unofficial results, PTI obtained 63 seats, closely followed by PML-N which won 59, while independent candidates bagged 52 seats.
However, Dunya News reported that PTI got 60 seats while independents secured victory on 55 seats.
Both channels reported that among other parties, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 17 seats, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) 10, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) seven and Awami National Party (ANP) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) got two each.
PTI won the most number of seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) — 18 — followed by 28 in Punjab, 14 in Sindh and three in Balochistan, Geo News reported. PML-N won big in Punjab, bagging 51 seats, managing only five in KP, three in Sindh and none in Balochistan.
PPP was surprisingly unable to defeat PTI in Sindh, instead tying with them for 14 seats. The remaining three seats were won in KP, meaning none were won in either Punjab or Balochistan.
Independent candidates scored big in Punjab, bagging 32 seats. They secured nine in KP, seven in Sindh and four in Balochistan.
MQM won all of its 10 seats in Sindh, whereas JI won five in Sindh and two in Punjab. ANP won two seats in KP, whereas BAP won two in Balochistan.
There are 219 wards in 42 Cantonment Boards in the country, but polling was not held in Kamra, Cherat and Murree Gallies cantonments because either the candidates were elected unopposed or polling postponed.
All leading political parties including the ruling PTI, PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as well as various nationalist and religious parties contested the key elections, which was the third major electoral contest since the 2018 general elections.
Earlier, the PTI won general elections held in Gilgit-Baltistan in 2020 and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) this year.
Since all parties contested individually, the outcome will provide them a fair barometer to monitor the popular mood and prepare accordingly for the next general elections scheduled to be held in 2023.
Earlier, the ECP rejected a plea by the PTI to deploy the Army inside and outside the polling stations for maintaining law and order and instead it asked to deploy police and paramilitary Rangers and Frontier Constabulary (FC) troops for keeping peace.
Meanwhile, PTI's leader and information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the PTI "proved" it is the "only party" that enjoys support across the country and in every constituency.
"The real contest today was with the independents. (Pakistan) Peoples Party and Noon League's (PML-N) standing has been exposed," he said.
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