Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah says the PML-N needs only six more seats to secure a two-thirds majority in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, speaking at a rally in Bagh ahead of the third phase of polling (Geo News).
The arithmetic makes that difficult on Monday alone. Poonch division comprises eleven constituencies — three in Bagh, one in Haveli, five in Poonch and two in Sudhnoti. Under the revised schedule, polling on August 10 will be held only in Bagh and Haveli, which is four seats. Sanaullah said he hoped the party would win all four. Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Amir Muqam said the PML-N would form a government with a two-thirds majority.
Even a clean sweep on Monday would therefore leave the party two short of two-thirds, with the remaining seven seats in Poonch and Sudhnoti still unscheduled.
The AJK Election Commission has said it will announce new polling dates for Poonch and Sudhnoti after reviewing the situation. The chief election commissioner said on Saturday that once the issue of the sit-ins is resolved, the commission would be in a position to announce a polling date for Rawalakot within seven days — the first official indication of what lies behind a postponement that was announced without a stated reason, three days after the commission had dismissed reports of it as “baseless”.
Campaigning for the third phase ended at midnight on Saturday.
After two phases the PML-N has won 24 seats and the PPP 10. Sanaullah, responding to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s repeated claim that the countdown has begun for the PML-N government in Islamabad, said: “Those counting down will themselves be straightened out, and so will their count.”
Bilawal had told a rally in Bagh a day earlier that the PML-N was mistaken in believing it would form the AJK government, and that “their government in Islamabad is also at risk”, attributing the pressure to divisions within the PML-N and what he called a fight “between Islamabad and Lahore”.
The PPP has alleged rigging and violence in both completed phases; the PML-N has rejected the allegations and challenged it to produce evidence before the commission.
