Islamabad, Pakistan – Legislators in Pakistan-administered Kashmir are voting on Thursday to elect a president, filling the region’s last vacant constitutional office nearly eight months after the post fell vacant, well beyond the deadline set by its constitution. Najeeb Naqi Khan, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate, is expected to win. The party and its allies hold 32 of the 46 occupied seats in the 53-member Legislative Assembly, five more than the 27 votes required.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) holds 14. But questions surrounding months of deadly unrest persist, as seven seats remain vacant because two districts at the centre of the protest movement have yet to vote. Members of the region’s legislative assembly vote at the assembly secretariat in Muzaffarabad between 10am and 1pm local time.
Under the interim constitution, the president is elected by a majority of the assembly’s total membership, meaning 27 votes, regardless of how many seats are occupied. The PMLN-backed Khan, 62, is a former member of the assembly from Palandri in Sudhnoti district, where he has won multiple elections. He has held several ministerial portfolios.
The PPP has nominated Chaudhry Latif Akbar, 78, a former assembly speaker who served as acting president from January until August. Under the constitution, the president cannot be a member of the assembly. President Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry died in Islamabad on January 31, aged 71.
He had been elected in 2021 on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket. The PTI is led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been jailed for more than three years, but remains the country’s most popular politician. The region’s constitution requires the speaker to have an election held within 30 days of the office falling vacant.
The speaker at the time was the PPP’s Akbar, who was also performing the president’s functions. In late February, a petition was filed at the region’s High Court for directions to hold the vote, naming the speaker, the chief election commissioner and the Election Commission among the respondents. The election still did not take place.
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