Our Correspondent Mirpur (AJK)
Azad Jammu Kashmir Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (Retd) Abdul Rasheed Salaria Sunday expressed full satisfaction over holding of general elections process in Azad Jammu Kashmir in free, fair and peaceful manner.
Talking to media persons during his visit to various polling stations in Kotli, Bhimbher and Mirpur districts, he expressed the hope that the overall turnout of the voting might be over 56 percent.
He was flanked by members of the AJK Election Commissioner Raja Farooq Ahmed Niaz and Farhat Ali Mir during visit to the polling stations to assess the polling process in Mirpur division.
The chief election commissioner said that although there were reports about occurrence of some unpleasant incidents of clashes among the rival groups outside the polling stations, but the overall polling process remained peaceful under the due foolproof security arrangements.
To this direction, he expressed full satisfaction over the arrangements made by the Election Commission for holding of the polls in free, fair and transparent manner.
Responding to a question of media, he said that since polling process will continue till the stipulated 5.00 pm in the evening according to the elections schedule, voters present in the premises of the polling stations till 5.00 pm would also be able to exercise their right of vote even after passing of the stipulated polling time.
To another question, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the presiding officers would be bound to provide the copies of the unofficial results to the polling agents of the contest political parties and the independent candidates soon after completion of the counting process.
Meanwhile, Secretary Election Commission (EC) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Muhammad Ghazanfar Khan on Sunday said the General Elections 2021 were held in free, fair and transparent manner, and rejected the rigging allegations from some quarters.
“No complaint has been received from any part of the state in this regard.” he said. “No one without original National Computerized Identity Card (CNIC) had been allowed to cast vote,” he told APP in an exclusive interview.
He said the EC looked into some complaints on its own and found no truth in them after complete verification. “Alhamdulillah!, the election process was generally peaceful.”
