SAHIWAL, Sept 18: The Democratic Group won seven out of the total eight seats in the annual Sahiwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry elections.

One of the seats was won by independent candidate Arshad Bhutta. A total of 13 candidates were contesting for four corporate and four associate classes’ seats.

Traditionally, there was a competition between the Democratic Group, led by Shaikh Azmat Saleem, and Founder Group led by Chaudhry Safdar Rasheed. For three years, the Democratic Group has been sweeping the elections.

This year, none of the members of the Founder Group contested, however, five independent candidates were in the race against the Democratic Group.

There were 80 constituents of the corporate class out of which 72 cast votes on Tuesday. Similarly, the associate class had 315 constituents out of which 290 cast their votes.

Those who won in the corporate class included Arshad Husain with 66 votes, Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh 57, Shaikh Muhammad Afzal 52 and Muhammad Asim 46. Those who won in the associate class were Sagheer Anjum with 222 votes, Azmat Saleem 216, Sohail Anjum Ansari 183 and independent candidate Arshad Bhutta 173 votes.

Dawn learnt that Arshad Husain was the candidate for chamber’s president from the Democratic Group. He would replace Chaudhry Wahid Husain who had last year won from the same platform.