LAHORE, Feb 27: Farooq Amjad Mir of the ruling PML won the Lahore NA-127 seat by a margin of 6,890 votes in by-elections held here on Sunday, according to unofficial results.

According to the unofficial results announced at around 11.45pm, Farooq Amjad Mir polled 29,268 votes against 22,378 of the ARD. Awami Qiadat Party's candidate, Noor Naeem Khan, got 126 votes.

The ARD leadership, however, refused to accept the result, saying it was the 'worst post-poll rigging' and decided to lodge its protest in Monday's session of the National Assembly. The voting was held in a peaceful manner, with the ARD levelling allegations of excessive use of official transport - a charge denied by Farooq Amjad.

There were conflicting reports about the turnout of voters and even newsmen's assessments were based on the polling in the areas they were covering. It was heavy in some areas but below normal in others. However, most of them agreed that it was between 20 and 40 per cent. No official figures were available till the filing of this report about how many of the 237,065 voters had actually gone to 216 polling stations to cast their votes.

Even the ruling party candidate refused to comment on the percentage of votes cast. "It was certainly better if compared with other by-elections, but it would be too early to say anything about turnover in numerical terms," he said while talking to Dawn in the evening.

About allegations of the use of official machinery, he said these were usual, run-of-the-mill accusations, which even the ARD had not agitated on any forum. "These are baseless allegations and only meant to mar our victory," he said.

In some areas, where the PML-N and the Jaamat-i-Islami have strong support (like Kit Lachlan and Township), voting was heavy. However, it was thin in other areas. According to Naved Chaudhry of the PPP, the turnout was low and "those who did make it to polling stations came to cast votes in favour of democratic forces. The ARD had voters and the PML had vehicles. This was the pattern of the day."

About the rigging allegation, he said the government had changed its tactics this time; they would rig the result at the returning officer stage rather than doing it in polling stations. He claimed that early signals were in favour of the ARD and it was waiting for provisional results to announce its next strategy.