Nominations surge as 1,265 file papers for AJK elections

The deadline for filing nomination papers, originally set for June 19, had been extended to June 23, without a weekend break, due to the prevailing situation in the territory. AJK Election Commission Secretary Raja Shakeel Khan told Dawn that 1,047 nomination papers had been filed in the 33 territorial constituencies and 218 in the 12 refugee constituencies located in Pakistan. Of the territorial constituencies, 409 nomination papers were submitted across the 13 seats of Mirpur division, 344 in the nine constituencies of Muzaffarabad division, and 294 in the 11 seats of Poonch division. In the refugee constituencies, 121 papers were filed in the six Jammu constituencies and 97 in the six allocated for the Kashmir Valley. The highest number of nominations in a single territorial constituency was 59 in LA-29, Muzaffarabad-III, while the lowest was 12 in LA-12, Kotli-V. Among the refugee constituencies, LA-36, Jammu-III, received the highest number of nomination papers at 29, whereas LA-42, Valley-III, and LA-45, Valley-VI, received the lowest number, with nine each. Mr Khan said that 957 nomination papers had been submitted in the 2021 general elections — 797 in the 33 territorial constituencies and 160 in the 12 refugee constituencies. The latest figures showed an increase of more than 30pc in overall submissions, which observers viewed as an indication of growing interest in the electoral process. Notably, Poonch division, the epicentre of the ongoing protests, recorded 12 more nomination papers than in the 2021 elections. Khan said the fina