NOWSHERA/SHANGLA: Candidates backed by Awami National Party won elections on two vacant seats of general councillors, defeating candidates supported by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Tuesday.

Official sources said two seats of general councillors of union council Choki Mamraiz and union council Sale Khana were lying vacant. The polling started at 8am and continued till 5pm.

The seat of general councillor of Chowki Mamraiz UC was grabbed by Sajjid Khan who defeated Sirtaj of PTI and Nousherwan of Jamaat-i-Islami. The winning candidate polled 465 votes, while runner-up received 240 votes.

Similarly, ANP backed candidate Mohammad Ilyas polled 864 votes for the seat of general councillor of Sale Khana union council, while PTI backed candidate received 584 votes. A candidate backed by Qaumi Watan Party got 336 votes.

A statement issued by ANP termed the victory a sign of its success in Nowshera and vowed that they would clean sweep the next general election in the district.

According to unofficial results of by-election held on two village councils in Shangla district, Sayab Khan won general council seat of Khwar Kalley Lelonai by getting 294 votes, while his opponent Umar Din got 207 votes. Similarly, in union council Ranyal Mehmood Khan got 552 votes and was elected general councillor, defeating Azim Khan who secured 203 votes.

Published in Dawn November 30th, 2016