Ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Malik Wasif Mazhar Raan on Sunday won the by-election on Multan’s PP-218 against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Malik Arshad Raan after a close contest.
According to unverified and unofficial results, the PTI candidate secured 48,988 votes while his PPP competitor, who was contesting the by-poll with the support of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), managed to bag 39,486 votes.
The polling process for the by-election remained peaceful amid tight security. The voters who had entered the premises of polling station were allowed to continue casting their votes even after the end of official time.
As many as 1,887 police officers were on duty at the polling stations to ensure law and order situation. The police had also set up a special control room at Makhdoom Rasheed police station to monitor security arrangements.
City Police Officer (CPO) Imran Mahmood also visited different polling stations to check security arrangements.
A total of 138 polling stations including 25 for male, 24 female and 89 combined were set up in the constituency, where 203,188 registered voters including 111,918 male and91,270 female were expected to exercise their right to vote.
Besides the PTI and PPP candidates, Malik Shahid Abbas Raan, Muhammad Tufail, Muhammad Ramzan and Muhammad Israrul Haq Cheema – all independent candidates — contested the by-poll.
The Punjab Assembly seat fell vacant after the death of PTI MPA Malik Mazhar Abbas Raan. He was elected as MPA by securing 45,817 votes in the 2018 general elections while his rival candidates Malik Muhammad Abbas of PPP bagged 37,417 votes and PML-N candidate Zaffar Ahmed obtained 25,000 votes.
