Independent, BAP candidates retain their seats in Balochistan’s PB-5, NA-258 by-elections

Independent candidate Sardar Masood Ali Khan Luni and Balochistan Awami Party’s Sardar Israr Tareen retained their seats in the PB-5 and NA-258 by-elections held on Thursday.

According to unofficial and unconfirmed results, Luni won the PB-5 election with 13,055 votes, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam candidate Sardar Dar Mohammad Nasir got 5,603 and  Yahya Khan Nasir got 3,530 votes.

Duki Returning Officer Syed Nazir Ahmed issued the unofficial results of the PB-5 by-election. According to the unofficial results, a total of 22,664 votes were cast. About 862 votes were rejected during the counting. The overall turnout of the election was 44%, which is 10% lower than the general election.

Related: Balochistan voters head to the polls for by-elections in PB-5, NA-258

On the other hand, according to unofficial results of the re-polling in the 23 polling stations of NA-258 Loralai-Musakhel-Ziarat-Duki-Harnai, Tareen of the Balochistan Awami Party won with 41,818 while Maulana Amir Zaman came second with 37,049 votes.

The by-election was held because the losing candidates challenged the results in the ECP. They say there was rigging in the July 25 election.

Sardar Yahya Khan Nasir challenged the PB-5 results, while Sardar Dur Muhammad Nasir of the BAP challenged the NA-258 results.

Luni, an independent candidate who later joined the BAP, was earlier declared victorious from the PB-5 constituency, while BAP’s Tareen was declared victorious in NA-258.  Luni contested the election once again as an independent candidate. On October 5, the ECP had announced that there would be re-polling in the entire PB-5 Duki constituency and in 23 polling stations of NA-258.