Gilgit Baltistan Election 2020: 6 odd and interesting facts about polls in Gilgit-Baltistan

Elections can be stressful, but sometimes election-day facts can also be rather interesting.

As election day inches closer in Pakistan’s northernmost region, and residents prepare to perform their civic duty, Geo News brings you some odd and trivia-winning facts about Gilgit Baltistan.

Déjà vu?

For some assembly hopefuls, the competition is all too familiar.

In the constituency GBA 2 (Gilgit), Hafiz-ur-Rehman of the PML-N, Fateh Ullah Khan of the PTI, and Jamil Ahmed of the PPP are up against each other for the third time. 

In 2015, Rehman defeated both Ahmed and Khan, while in 2009, Ahmed and Rehman lost to an independent candidate.

Similarly, in GBA 10, Wazir Hassan of the PTI and Muhammad Sikandar Ali of the Islami Tehreek Pakistan have been contesting against each other since 2009 and will face off again this weekend.

Meanwhile, Raja Muhammad Azam Khan of the PTI and Imran Nadeem of the PPP have also been election rivals since 2009.

Father vs son

As the old adage goes, “All’s fair in love, war, and politics.”

Nawaz Khan Naji contested and lost to the late Pir Karam Ali Shah in the 2009 GB election. This year he will go up instead against Shah’s son, Syed Pir Jalal Shah, for the legislative assembly seat of GBA 19 (Ghizer).

Meanwhile, PTI’s Dilbar Khan is competing against Kafayat-ur-Rehman, who is an independent candidate. Rehman is the son of the late Malik Muhammad Miskeen, who Khan defeated in 2009. Miskeen recently died of COVID-19, so now his son is in the fray.

Uncle vs nephew

In GBLA 7 (Skardu) Muhammad Abbas of the ITP is hoping to defeat his mamu (uncle), Raja Muhammad Zakeria Khan, this weekend.

A record?

In 2015, the candidate to win with the most number of votes in Gilgit-Baltistan was Muhammad Ibrahim Sanai. That year, he competed from the platform of the Pakistan Muslim League-N and won with a local record-breaking 11,382 votes. This year, Sanai is contesting on a PTI ticket.

On the other hand, a member of the legislative assembly who won with the narrowest margin was PML-N’s Muhammad Akbar. He defeated Raja Jalal Hussain of the PTI from Skardu with only one vote in 2015.

A numbers game

The constituency in Gilgit-Baltistan with the lowest number of registered voters is GBA 5 (Nagar), where only 14,001 people can cast a ballot on November 15.

While GBA 18 (Diamer) is the constituency with the lowest number of female voters. Of the total registered voters, only 40% are women.   

Engineer only by name

PML-N’s candidate for GBA 24 (Ghanche), Engineer Manzoor Hussain, uses ‘engineer’ before his name. Interestingly, Hussain is not an engineer by profession. In fact, he has only completed an intermediate-level education.