LAHORE: Despite low attendance, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) swept through the NA-133 by-election, which was hotly fought by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), while a PTI candidate was disqualified on technical grounds, according to unofficial results.
According to unofficial statistics, Shaista Pervaiz Malik of the PML-N received 46,811 votes, while Chaudhry Aslam Gill of the PPP received 32,313 votes in a contest that was mainly calm, save for a few of brief confrontations involving activists from the two major opponents.
However, voter turnout remained at 18.59%, with just 80,022 people exercising their right to vote out of a total of 440,845 voters. At least 898 ballots were invalidated.
There were nine additional contenders in the race, all of them were independent or from obscure organisations, while the candidate of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had already been eliminated on technical reasons. The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which finished third in the 2018 general elections, chose to stay out of the by-elections, alleging a lack of preparedness due to its participation in a lengthy march on Islamabad, which it called off after reaching an agreement with the government on November 8.
Mr Gill received only 5,500 votes in the 2018 general election for the same seat that became vacant following the death of PML-N MNA Pervaiz Malik, who received over 90,000 votes at the time.