PTI sweeps by-polls in Peshawar’s Mathra tehsil

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged victorious in the by-elections held on Sunday for the vacant seat of chairman in Peshawar’s Mathra tehsil.

According to unofficial results, PTI’s candidate Inamullah secured a significant victory with 20,333 votes in all 155 polling stations.

Following closely behind, JUI’s candidate Rafiullah obtained the second position with 13,564 votes.

The by-elections were necessitated by the death of former chairman Faridullah Khan of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in May 2023.

The by-elections were contested by six candidates, including Inamullah from PTI, Rafiullah from JUI-F, Iftikhar Ahmed from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Aziz Ghaffar Khan from Awami National Party (ANP), Ali Abbas Khan from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Fazlullah from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The polling process was conducted peacefully and transparently under the supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

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The ECP had deployed 496 presiding officers and assigned magisterial powers to the district returning officer and the returning officer. The ECP had also banned the display of weapons and imposed section 144 in the area.

As the news of PTI’s success spread, jubilant supporters celebrated the victory by organising festivities and distributing sweets among themselves.