GILGIT: PPP candidate Akhtar Abbas Nashad was leading the by-election in GBA-09 Skardu-III by a margin of 455 votes in a close contest on Saturday, according to partial preliminary and unofficial results.

Nashad secured 8,040 votes, while his rival, independent candidate Wazir Mohammad Saleem, received 7,585 votes, according to unofficial results that were announced till Saturday night.

The by-election was announced by the Gilgit-Baltistan Election Commission after the GB Supreme Appellate Court disqualified PPP candidate Fida Muhammad Nashad, who had been declared a returned candidate in the June general elections.

A total of 33,985 voters, including 17,658 men and 15,868 women, were registered to cast their ballots in Saturday’s by-election.

Nashad’s son, Akhtar Abbas, contested the election on PPP’s ticket, while Mohammad Ajmal contested from the PML-N. Former minister Mohammad Saleem, who is contesting as an independent, was also among 10 candidates who have filed their nomination papers.

More than 800 police personnel, in addition to GB Scouts, were deployed under special security arrangements for the polling. The electoral process remained largely smooth and peaceful.

A local holiday was declared in the constituency. According to the notification issued by the Skardu district magistrate, the holiday was declared to “facilitate eligible voters in exercising their right to franchise and to ensure the smooth and peaceful conduct of polls”.

Analysts said a close contest was expected between PPP’s Abbas and independent candidate Saleem. They said Abbas could retain his father’s vote bank and may benefit from public sympathy following Nashad’s disqualification by the GB Supreme Appellate Court.

District Returning Officer (DRO) Hamza Murad told Dawn on Friday that GBA-09 had 61 polling stations, of which 25 had been declared sensitive under Category A, 11 had been placed in Category B as medium-sensitive, and 25 had been classified as normal under Category C.