SAHIWAL: Chaudhry Tufail of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz defeated Rai Murtaza Iqbal of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the by-election for the National Assembly constituency NA-162 Chichawatni on Monday.

According to the unofficial result, Mr Tufail secured 67,220 votes against Mr Iqbal’s 61,480.

Shahzad Saeed Cheema of the Pakistan Peoples Party remained a distant third with 15,347 votes.

The voter turnout was recorded more in polling stations set up in rural areas than urban localities of Chichawatni and Harappa city.

More than 1,200 army personnel were deployed to keep order in and outside the polling stations.

Several polling agents of the three contestants complained that they were not allowed to move freely near the polling stations.

“The army restricted our movement,” one of the polling agents told Dawn, requesting anonymity.

Rana Abdul Gaffar, the returning officer, said that polling continued till 5pm without any break.

At village 103/7R, the army personnel picked up a police constable after he shared with someone the result of a polling station by mobile phone without the permission of the presiding officer.

The army did not allow any camera inside the polling stations. Most of the media coverage was done outside the polling stations.

Fafen appointed 80 election observers who visited 93 per cent of the polling stations.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2016