{"id":8707,"date":"2026-08-01T09:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=8707"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:06:10","slug":"election-campaign-ends-for-second-phase-of-ajk-polls-voting-to-be-held-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=8707","title":{"rendered":"Election Campaign Ends for Second Phase of AJK Polls; Voting to Be Held on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MUZAFFARABAD:<\/strong> Election campaigning for the second phase of the <strong>2026 Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly elections<\/strong> has officially concluded, with polling scheduled for <strong>Sunday, August 2<\/strong>, across nine constituencies in Muzaffarabad Division and 12 refugee seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second phase of the elections will cover the three districts of <strong>Muzaffarabad, Neelum, and Jhelum Valley<\/strong>, where voters will elect their representatives to the AJK Legislative Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to election authorities, <strong>890,621 registered voters<\/strong> are eligible to cast their ballots in the three districts. Of these, <strong>427,955 are male voters<\/strong> and <strong>381,666 are female voters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To facilitate the voting process, the Election Commission has established <strong>1,483 polling stations<\/strong> across Muzaffarabad Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to the nine territorial constituencies, polling will also take place for <strong>12 refugee seats<\/strong> in the AJK Legislative Assembly. These seats represent Kashmiri refugees residing in different parts of Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The refugee constituencies include <strong>six Jammu seats (LA-34 Jammu-1 to LA-39 Jammu-6)<\/strong> and <strong>six Valley seats (LA-40 Valley-1 to LA-45 Valley-6)<\/strong>. Eligible Kashmiri refugee voters living in various cities across Pakistan will cast their votes for these constituencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking ahead of the polls, <strong>Chief Election Commissioner Justice (Retired) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal<\/strong> emphasized the independence of the Election Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Election Commission does not work under anyone\u2019s instructions or dictation. It is an independent and autonomous institution,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Addressing allegations of election rigging, the Chief Election Commissioner remarked that defeated candidates often level such accusations after elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also urged citizens to actively participate in the democratic process by exercising their right to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If people choose to stay home instead of voting, issues cannot later be resolved through rallies, protests, or demonstrations,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Mughal described the current electoral process as <strong>one of the most challenging elections in the history of Azad Kashmir<\/strong>. He added that if the prevailing law and order situation continues, polling in <strong>Rawalakot<\/strong> could potentially be delayed or rescheduled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Election Commission has finalized arrangements for polling and is coordinating with the relevant authorities to ensure a peaceful, transparent, and orderly voting process across all constituencies. Security personnel are expected to be deployed at polling stations to maintain law and order and facilitate voters throughout election day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUZAFFARABAD: Election campaigning for the second phase of the 2026 Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly elections has officially concluded, with polling scheduled for..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439146_1936481_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8709,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8707\/revisions\/8709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}