MUZAFFARABAD — Polling for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly elections 2026 is scheduled to commence on Monday across 13 highly competitive constituencies within the Mirpur Division. According to ARY News, the regional election authorities have finalized all logistical and security arrangements for the democratic exercise, which spans four seats in Mirpur, three in Bhimber, and six in Kotli districts. Official statistics reveal that a total of 1,401,439 registered voters—comprising 725,811 men and 675,628 women—are eligible to exercise their constitutional right to vote. To facilitate the process, the election commission has established 2,454 polling stations and 3,701 polling booths across the division, where a total of 287 political party nominees and independent contenders are vying for public office.
The electoral landscape features several high-stakes, traditional battlegrounds primarily dominated by head-to-head contests between candidates of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). In LA-1 (Dadyal-Mirpur), PML-N’s Azhar Sadiq is facing off against PPP’s Muhammad Afser Shahid in a pool of 20 candidates. LA-2 (Chakswari/Islamgarh) will see an intense battle between PPP’s Chaudhry Qasim Majeed and PML-N’s Azeem Bakhsh Chaudhry. In the high-profile urban center of LA-3 (Mirpur City), a crowded field of 34 candidates features a frontline battle between PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed and PPP’s Chaudhry Yasar Sultan. Similar fierce bilateral dynamics are expected in LA-4 between Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed (PML-N) and Chaudhry Sohaib Arshad (PPP), as well as in LA-5 (Barnala) where Waqar Ahmad Noor (PML-N) challenges Chaudhry Pervez Ashraf (PPP).
