rki.news

Altaf Hamid Rao

MIRPUR (AJK), July 27: Voters in Mirpur Division of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) exercised their right to vote on Monday in the first phase of the AJK Legislative Assembly Elections 2026, with polling held across all 13 constituencies of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber districts.
A total of 1,401,439 registered voters were eligible to cast ballots for electing representatives for the next five-year constitutional term. Polling was conducted in six constituencies of Kotli district, three in Bhimber and four in Mirpur district.
According to election details, around 647,000 voters in Kotli, 342,000 in Bhimber and 411,000 in Mirpur were registered for the elections. A total of 135 candidates contested six seats in Kotli, 63 candidates competed for three seats in Bhimber, while 98 candidates contested four seats in Mirpur.
The Election Commission established 2,554 polling stations and 3,701 polling booths across the division to facilitate voters.
AJK Inspector General of Police Captain (Retd) Liaqat Hussain said 18,000 police personnel were deployed to maintain security. He described polling as peaceful across most constituencies, except for a few minor incidents.
The main contest remained between candidates of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) AJK, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) AJK and other political groups.