AJK elections to be held in three phases, polling begins July 27

According to the revised schedule, voting in Mirpur Division will take place on July 27, followed by Muzaffarabad Division on August 2 and Poonch Division on August 10.

The announcement replaces the Election Commission s earlier plan to hold polling across all constituencies on July 27 from 8am to 5pm.

According to The News, a total of 1,265 candidates have submitted nomination papers for 45 Legislative Assembly constituencies, including 12 refugee seats.

Of these, 1,047 candidates are contesting 33 constituencies within Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while 218 candidates have filed nominations for the 12 seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees.

The Election Commission said scrutiny of nomination papers has been completed in all 45 constituencies, with 41 nomination papers rejected on legal grounds.

More than 3.8 million registered voters will elect representatives through 6,983 polling stations and 10,913 polling booths.

Within AJK, 3,365,685 voters will cast their ballots at 5,926 polling stations. Male voters account for 52% of the electorate, while female voters make up the remaining 48%.

A total of 22 political parties are participating in the elections.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, has boycotted the elections in solidarity with ongoing protests in the region.

The party, which had planned to field independent candidates after once again failing to secure an election symbol, said it would not participate in what it described as "the politics of power that ignores the voice of the Kashmiri people."

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have entered into an electoral alliance, with the PPP leaving LA-14 (Bagh-I) and LA-23 (Poonch and Sudhanoti-VI) for JUI-F candidates while contesting the remaining 43 seats.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has fielded 44 candidates, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) 38, Muslim Conference 36, Jamaat-e-Islami 36, Pakistan National Party (PNP) 14, and Jammu Kashmir People s Party (JKPP) nine candidates.

Election campaigning has intensified across the region through public rallies and corner meetings.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been leading his party s campaign since arriving in AJK on July 14, while PML-N President Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to address public rallies in Muzaffarabad on July 21 and Mirpur on July 24.