PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami’s Izazul Mulk, who was also backed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), won the by-election for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from Lower Dir constituency, PK-95, on Thursday.

According to unofficial results, the JI candidate secured 19,812 votes, defeating Awami National Party’s (ANP) Haji Sardar Bahadur, who received 15,927 votes.

A close contest was expected between the JI and ANP for the seat recently vacated by JI chief Sirajul Haq upon being elected as a Senator.

Read: Close contest likely between JI and ANP in PK-95

Both Mulk and Bahadar have been active in politics for quite some time. Bahadar remained member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on two occasions and has also held the tehsil nazim slot.

Since 1988, the JI has won election in the constituency four times and ANP three times.

As many as 33 polling stations were declared ‘most sensitive’ and 42 ‘sensitive’ in the constituency.

A total of 85 polling stations had been set up. Out of the 266 polling booths set up, 90 had been specified for female voters.

Read: 33 polling stations in PK-95 declared ‘most sensitive’

Officials in the police department had said that about 1,000 police and Dir Levies officials would be deployed on all polling stations. The sources said that special security arrangements would be made for the ‘most sensitive’ polling stations in the constituency.

There are a total of 127,096 registered voters in the constituency, including around 53,000 women.

Also read: Ban on women voters: Fresh elections demanded in 8 KP districts

Reports had emerged that a tribal jirga had barred women from voting at Khazana polling station in Dir. There are around 2,700 registered voters in Khazana area of Lower Dir’s PK-95 constituency out of which around 1,000 are women.

Though female polling staff were present at all polling stations, the overall turnout of women voters remained sparse across the constituency.

Similar reports regarding a ban on woman voters had surfaced in the said district, including seven others in the province, during the 2013 General Elections.