QUETTA: The Balochistan Awami Party’s (BAP) candidate won by-election on PB-47 (Keck-3), Returning Officer Abdul Wahid Baloch announced on Friday.

According to unofficial results released by the provincial election commissioner, winning candidate Lala Rasheed received 7,088 votes while retired Major Jameel Ahmed Dashti of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal came on second position with 5,758 votes.

The Balochistan Assembly seat had fallen vacant after the Election Commission of Pakistan had disqualified Mir Rauf Rind, the winning candidate from the constituency in July 25 general elections, for his dual nationality. His opponents had challenged his election on the ground of his dual nationality.

National Party candidate Fida Hussain came on third position with 3,055 votes.

Barkat Ali, an independent candidate, received only 925 votes.

According to the ECP, 17,422 out of total 56,472 votes were polled in the by-election (8,724 female votes and male 8,698 votes). As many as 401 votes were rejected during the count. The percentage of polled votes stood at 30.85.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2018