MIRPUR (AJK): The 3rd and last phase of the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) Local Bodies elections was completed after a heavy turnout of the voters who were using their right of franchise to elect their representatives to the civic bodies witnessed in all three districts of Mirpur Division including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher on Thursday.
Polling to the elections was held mostly in an absolutely free, fair and peaceful manner completing the entire phased local bodies elections process in Azad Jammu Kashmir.
Soon after the completion of the polling process, counting of the votes has been started by the presiding officers at all the polling stations for onward submission to the returning officers of the concerned wards of the civic bodies, according to the AJK Election Commission sources told reporter when contacted here Thursday evening.
reporter AJK Correspondent reports from Mirpur that in all three districts of Mirpur division including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher districts, an attractive chunk of a total of 12 lakh, 32 thousand and 79 registered voters moved to exercise their right of vote to elect the local bodies representatives of their respective choice in the 3rd and final phase of the polls – right from the beginning of the polling at 8.00 in the morning which continued till the stipulated time of 5.00 pm on Thursday.
The registered voters included 5,63,016 in Kotli district, 36, 6043 in Mirpur district and 30, 3020 registered voters in Bhimbher district.
A total of 1026 polling stations were set up in Kotli district, 625 in Mirpur district and 538 in Bhimbher district respectively with 1602, 924, and 850 polling booths in the three above districts respectively to facilitate both male and female registered voters to use their right of vote to elect their civic bodies members.
A total of 10500 civil armed forces troops including 4400 AJK police COPs , 1910 Punjab police constables, , 3000 Frontier Constabulary (FC) jawans, 1200 Pakistan Rangers personnel were deputed on special duty at a total of 2188 polling stations set up in all three districts of Mirpur division. Among the total polling stations 874 were declared extremely sensitive, 803 sensitive and 511 normal – separately for both genders – the registered male and female voters.
In order to ensure the holding of the polling in absolutely free, fair and peaceful environment, Mirpur division was divided into 21 zones comprising 234 sector. SSPs and SPs headed each zone with the fully-alerted armed COPs.
A Central Control Room at Mirpur Divisional HQ was set up to monitor whole of the law and order situation during polling on all three districts of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher. The District level Control Rooms in all three districts were aksi established in all three district to monitor the law and order situation during polling process and later on.
A special high level AJK Police Monitoring team headed by Additional IGP was deputed to monitor the entire law and order situation during the electoral process simultaneously in all three districts of Mirpur division.
The LB elections in Azad Jammu Kashmir State have been held on political party-basis. However, hundreds of the independent candidates were also in run to contest the polls to get into the civic bodies of all categories across the liberated territory.
The civic polls in Azad Jammu Kashmir held in three phases under the auspices of Azad Jammu Kashmir Election Commission with the coordination of the judiciary in a free, fair and transparent manner in collaboration of the security institutions including the civil armed forces, local civil law enforcement authorities..
There are a totral of 12 lakh, 39 and 482 registered male and female voters in all three districts of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher districts. These include 06 lakh, 54 thousand and 986 registered male and 05 lakh, 84 thousand , 496 female registered voters.
In Mirpur districts, a big chunk of registered voters went to the polls to elect their representatives for a total of 306-seats local bodies institutions including 27-seat District Council, 46-seat Municipal Corporatio n, 202 seats of a total of 27 union councils and 31 seats of three Municipal Committees including those of Islamgarh, Chaksawari and Dadayal.
It may be mentioned that in first and 2nd phases, the local bodies elections have been held in Muzaffarabad and Poonch divisions respectively on November 27 and December 03, in free, fair and peaceful manner.
Polling started at 8.00 a.m in the morning and continued till 5.00 p.m without any pause.
The registered voters presented in the premises of the polling stations after passing of the stipulated last time deadline, were also allowed to use their right of vote.