ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in Azad Kashmir elected ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Najeeb Naqi as the region’s president on Thursday, filling an office vacant since January following a separate election for the regional legislative assembly that was overshadowed by deadly anti-government protests.

Naqi secured 32 votes in the regional assembly, defeating Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who received 13, according to a handout by the Azad Kashmir government. One member of the 46-member sitting assembly was absent.

Thursday’s presidential election was an indirect vote in which lawmakers chose the region’s president. It was distinct from the public election held in phases in July and August to elect members of the 53-seat legislative assembly. Naqi represents the PML-N, the party of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which won control of the regional government in the legislative election.

“I congratulate Dr. Najeeb Naqi on being elected president of the state,” Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Iftikhar Gillani told the assembly after the vote, according to a statement. 

The presidency had remained vacant since the death of Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry in January, with successive assembly speakers performing the president’s duties in an acting capacity. The regional constitution requires the president to be elected by a majority of the assembly’s total membership.

Thursday’s presidential vote took place before the completion of the separate legislative assembly election, with seven of the assembly’s 45 directly elected constituencies still unfilled. Polling in five constituencies in Poonch district and two in neighboring Sudhnoti was postponed indefinitely in August after election authorities cited deteriorating law and order.

“It is regrettable that elections were not held in seven constituencies of Poonch,” Gillani said, adding that his government was trying to complete the electoral process there soon. No new polling date has been announced.

The legislative assembly election was held against the backdrop of months of protests led by the Joint Awami Action Committee, a civil rights alliance commonly known as JAA C that was banned in June under anti-terrorism laws, with authorities accusing it of fomenting violence, an allegation its leaders deny.

JAAC initially rose to prominence over electricity prices, subsidized flour and government privileges, but its latest campaign focused on 12 legislative constituencies representing refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir who live elsewhere in Pakistan.

The group argues that the seats give Pakistan-based political parties disproportionate influence over the formation of governments in Azad Kashmir. The region’s Supreme Court ruled in June that the seats were constitutionally protected and could only be abolished through a constitutional amendment.

Dozens of people were reported killed in clashes between protesters and security forces during the unrest, although competing casualty figures were difficult to verify independently because of communications restrictions and limited access to affected areas. The violence prompted authorities to divide the legislative assembly election into phases and postpone voting in the seven constituencies.

Azad Kashmir is part of the wider Himalayan territory disputed between Pakistan and India. Each country administers a portion of Kashmir but claims the region in full, and the two nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over it.