Second Phase of AJK Polls: Bilawal Hopes for 'Fairness' as PPP Alleges Electoral Malpractice

The second phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir's elections produced fresh accusations of rigging from the Pakistan Peoples Party, along with a worker's death that the party and its rival PML-N now dispute the cause of, deepening a confrontation that first flared after the vote's opening phase.

What happened at the polls

Voting covered eight of the nine constituencies in the Muzaffarabad division along with 12 seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees. Polling ran from 8am to 5pm for the refugee seats and 8am to 6pm for Muzaffarabad, with an extra hour added in Muzaffarabad on the day. Weather forced a partial postponement: constituency LA-27 in Kutla and 52 polling stations within LA-28 were pushed back to a later date after landslides and heavy rain made access unsafe. More than 300 candidates contested the Muzaffarabad seats, while 137 competed for the 12 refugee constituencies, drawing on a combined registered electorate of over 1.2 million voters across both categories.

PPP's rigging allegations

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari accused the PML-N of "robbing" votes through violence and coercion, citing eight PPP workers injured during the polling and polling agents who were denied observation access at multiple stations. The party also alleged ballot stuffing at several locations. The most serious claim involved the death of a PPP worker, Mushtaq Shah, in constituency LA-31, which the party has tied to the day's violence.

PML-N's counter-account

PML-N disputed the PPP's framing of Shah's death directly, saying the worker died of heart failure during a scuffle rather than from gunshot wounds as PPP's account implied. Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb responded to the broader rigging narrative with a pointed question aimed at PPP: "Will you do politics on bullets?" The exchange illustrates how quickly a disputed death can become its own flashpoint layered on top of the underlying rigging dispute.

Where the results stand

Unofficial, preliminary results show PML-N leading in six constituencies, LA-25, LA-29, LA-30, LA-31, LA-32 and LA-34, while PPP was ahead in three, LA-26, LA-28 and LA-33. Among the refugee seats, PML-N had won four of the five counted so far, with PPP securing one.

Why this phase matters more than the numbers suggest

Coming after the first phase's rigging allegations covered earlier in Mirpur division, this second round extends a pattern where the ruling federal coalition's two largest partners are contesting each other bitterly at the regional level even as they continue to govern together nationally. Bilawal's public hope for "fairness" in this round reads less like routine campaign rhetoric and more like an acknowledgment that trust between the two parties over AJK's electoral process has already eroded significantly heading into it.

What comes next

With landslide-affected polling stations still to be rescheduled and final, certified results for several contested constituencies still pending, both the vote count itself and the competing narratives around Mushtaq Shah's death are likely to keep this dispute active well beyond polling day. How the AJK Election Commission handles the malpractice complaints, and whether any independent inquiry addresses the circumstances of the worker's death, will shape whether this becomes a settled result or another prolonged standoff between the coalition partners.

The postponed stations in LA-27 and LA-28 add a further complication: until those delayed votes are actually cast and counted, the current lead totals in those constituencies remain provisional, meaning either party could still see its position shift once the weather-affected areas finally go to the polls.