AJK Election Commission Phasing Poonch Division Polls

Voters in the Bagh and Haveli districts will go to the polls on Monday to kick off phased elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch division. Electoral officials opted to break up the divisional balloting on security grounds, placing four key seats in the initial stage.

According to reports from Dawn Pakistan, Justice (retd) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, the Chief Election Commissioner of AJK, indicated that voting for the remaining seven divisional constituencies could take place around August 20 or 21. Speaking to journalists in his office, he stated that the formal election schedule for the Sudhnoti and Poonch districts will be issued within seven days to give candidates adequate campaign time.

The Poonch division features 1,154,626 registered voters spread across 11 constituencies. Geographically, these consist of five seats in Poonch district, three in Bagh, two in Sudhnoti, and one in Haveli.

For the upcoming Monday vote, 460,371 citizens—comprising 238,664 men and 221,707 women—are eligible to participate. Election authorities have set up 803 polling stations containing 1,254 individual booths to service the voters. A field of 82 candidates is contesting these four seats, with LA-14 Central Bagh drawing the largest group at 30 contenders, whereas another seat saw the fewest competitors at nine.