MITHI, Oct 8: Arbab Zakaullah of the Pakistan Muslim League obtained the highest number of votes in the by-election for NA-229 Tharparkar-I on Thursday.

According to unofficial results, he secured 187,522 votes out of a total 251,579 in the desert constituency.

The number of votes obtained by other candidates is: Haji Abdullah 217, Rahim Lund 156, Umer Nohrio 111, Dr Manoj Kumar 18 and Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani 348. A total of 189,665 votes were cast of which 188,372 had been declared valid and 1293 rejected.

It may be mentioned that other main candidates, Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani of the PPP and independent Rahim Lund, had boycotted the polls. The official results of polls are yet to be announced.