Pakistan-administered Kashmir votes for president amid unrest

Lawmakers will choose a president despite seven vacant seats in districts at the centre of months of unrest. 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.

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