MUZAFFARABAD: As many as 1.23 million voters would cast their ballots in the third and last leg of local government (LG) elections in the Mirpur division of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday (today).

The division comprises Kotli, Mirpur and Bhimber districts which are home to 569,051, 365,978 and 303,020 voters, respectively.

Divisional Commissioner Mirpur Chaudhry Shaukat Ali told Dawn on Wednesday that 2,188 polling stations had been set up in all three districts, of which 511 were designated as normal, 803 sensitive and 874 as most sensitive.

Apart from 4,400 AJK police personnel, 3,000 Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel, 1,200 Pakistan Rangers personnel and 1,910 Punjab police personnel would perform law and order duties in the division which had been divided into 21 zones and 234 sectors, headed by SSP/SP and DSP/Inspector rank officers of AJK police, respectively, he said.

Mr Ali said 4,257 candidates, including ticket holders of the three main political parties as well as independents, were contesting against 1,060 seats of rural and urban councils, as 23 candidates had already returned unopposed.

On Wednesday Azad Kashmir IGP Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh also presided over a meeting in the lakeside city of Mirpur to review arrangements to hold the polls peacefully.

The meeting was told that a command post cum control room had also been established for effective monitoring and timely collection of information throughout the day while separately district level control rooms had also been established at the headquarters of three districts.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2022