Coin Toss Settles Assembly Women Seat in Muzaffarabad

A tied vote for the final women’s reserved seat in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly was decided by a coin toss in Muzaffarabad, underscoring both the drama and the quirks of the region’s electoral rules. PPP’s Zobia Khurshid Raja and PML-N’s Riffat Abid each secured five votes from legislators, forcing officials to invoke the tie-breaking procedure. The coin favoured Raja, giving the PPP its second women’s reserved seat and denying the PML-N a fourth, even as the latter emerged as the dominant force in a still-incomplete Assembly, where seven general constituencies remain unfilled due to security concerns and po…