Voting concluded at several polling stations in Punjab’s Khushab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat and Sindh’s Ghotki, as scheduled by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for Thursday.

In a statement on Feb 10, the ECP had said that elections would be reconducted in 26 polling stations of NA-88 (Khushab-II) as the “polling material had been burned by a crowd in the returning officer’s room”.

It had further said that polls would be held again in two polling stations of the provincial constituency PS-18 (Ghotki-I) as “unknown men had snatched polling material” allocated for those stations.

Further, repolling was ordered in 25 polling stations of PK-90 (Kohat-I) because the “polling material for 15 polling stations was damaged by terrorists”.

Polling began in the three constituencies at 8am today and concluded at 5pm. The ECP spokesperson confirmed in a post on X at 9:30am that polling peacefully was under way in 53 polling stations in the three constituencies.

Khushab

In Khushab’s NA-88, Sultan Ahmad of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam—Fazl (JUI-F) is contesting against Jamaat-i-Islami’s (JI) Mohammad Waris and PTI-backed independent Muhammad Akram Niazi.

As repolling began in Khushab for the NA-88 seat, strict security measures were taken as ordered by District Police Officer Tauqeer Muhammad Naeem.

Last night, Khushab Deputy Commissioner Zeeshan Shabbir Rana’s official X account had shared that the official had reviewed arrangements for the repolling process there.

It had also announced a public holiday within the limits of the NA-88 constituency.

Ghotki

Earlier today, Ghotki District Returning Officer Agha Sher Zaman had confirmed to Dawn.com that the process had begun at two polling stations of Ghotki’s PS-18.

The ECP had previously issued the provisional result for 186 polling stations out of a total of 188 in the constituency. The two polling stations where repolling is being held have a total of 3,309 voters listed.

Independent candidate Jam Mehtab Hussain Dhar is facing PPP’s Shehryar Khan Shar and the JUI-F’s Nasir Mehmood.

In a post on X, the ECP spokesperson said “voters were present at the polling station in a great number”.

Kohat

In Kohat’s provincial constituency PK-90, PTI-backed independent candidate Aftab Alam Afridi is facing PPP’s Amjad Khan Afridi and the JUI-F’s Muhammad Shoaib.

Others in the race include the JI’s Nazia Bibi and Awami National Party’s Yaqoob Khan.

Polling in the stations located in Darra Adamkhel tribal subdivision had been halted after they were vandalised and ballot boxes were taken away during the Feb 8 elections

However, the set number of “25 polling stations was converted into eight due to security reasons”, according to Kohat Deputy Commissioner Azmatullah Wazir.

He further said that strict security arrangements were in place at all polling stations.

A notification issued by DC Wazir on February 13 also stated that the 25 polling stations were being “merged” into eight.