The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday accepted the request of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Miftah Ismail for a recount in the NA-249 (Karachi West-II) constituency where a by-election was held last week.
Last week, the commission had withheld the results on Ismail’s request for a recount, fixing the hearing in the petition for May 4 (today).
“The margin of victory is less than five per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency or 10,000 votes whichever is less in accordance with the provisions of Section 95 (5) of the (Elections) Act, the Commission is satisfied that prima facie case exists for intervention, and therefore stay the consolidation process,” its order read.
The PML-N had also requested the ECP to conduct a forensic audit of the votes cast in the constituency.
In his letter, Ismail had also claimed that presiding officers from 34 polling stations did not send the results through WhatsApp. He had further claimed that the party “did not receive results from more than 30 polling stations”.
He had also claimed that many copies of Form 45 were not signed and that the counting of votes on these forms given to the party is different from the forms issued by the returning officer (RO), which were not provided to them.
During the proceedings on Tuesday, Ismail’s counsel Salman Akram Raja presented Form 45 to the commission and said that under the law, a signed Form 45 must be given to every polling agent.
“At 167 polling stations, Form 45 was not signed by any polling agent. Not a single Form 46 has been issued to us and none of them were signed. Something happened with Form 45 and Form 46 after polling ended,” he said.
He said the issue of Form 46 was problematic and should be investigated as no presiding officer had issued it at any polling station, except one. The procedure was not followed as per the law and we were officially told a difference of 683 votes, he said.
Raja further said the matter of Form 45 and 46 shows interference and demanded a recount in the whole constituency. “This matter should be fully investigated as the whole process has become suspicious.”
On the other hand, PPP counsel Latif Khosa argued that no complaint was lodged with the returning officer (RO) or the commission during or after the polling and the RO is not bound to accept the recount request.
“They didn’t provide evidence and just said that there are doubts,” he said. He further said this application is absolutely “unjustified.”
