2016 Azad Kashmir general election

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41 of the 49 seats in the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly 25 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	62.2%
First party Second party   Leader Raja Farooq Haider Chaudhry Abdul Majid Party PML(N) PPP Leader's seat Muzaffarabad-V Mirpur-II Last election 11 seats 27 seats Seats won 36 4 Seat change 25 23 Popular vote 739,195 352,742 Percentage 44.4% 21.2%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Attique Ahmed Khan Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry Party AJKMC PTI Leader's seat Bagh-I Mirpur-III (lost) Last election 5 seats Did not contest Seats won 3 2 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 171,458 211,827 Percentage 10.3% 12.7%
Map of Azad Kashmir showing Assembly Constituencies and winning parties
Prime Minister before election Chaudhry Abdul Majid PPP Elected Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider PML(N)

General elections were held in Azad Kashmir on 21 July 2016 to elect 41 members of the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly. Polling started at 8:00am and continued until 5:00pm.

Campaign

At least 423 candidates ran for the 41 seats, the main competition being between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). 5,427 polling stations were set up for the election^[1]

Results

2,674,586 people were registered to vote in the elections, of whom 1,190,839 were female and 1,483,747 male.^[1]

The PML-N won 31, the PPP three, and PTI two. In addition, the AJKMC won three seats, the Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) won one seat and one seat was won by an independent. After the election, the PML(N) was able to elect its members to three seats reserved for women, one for ulema, and one for overseas. On the other hand, the PPP was able to win one reserved seat for women. Due to a pre-election agreement with the PML(N), the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) was also able to get one of its members elected to a reserved seat for women and another to a reserved seat for technocrats.^[2]

Aftermath

Following these results, the PML(N) was able to form a comfortable majority government, electing Raja Farooq Haider as prime minister of Azad Kashmir, controlling 36 out of the 49 seats in the assembly, while also enjoying support from the two JI MLAs. His opponents, Chaudhry Yasin of the PPP and Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan of the PTI, each garnered five votes each.^[3][4]