ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has accepted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Miftah Ismail’s request for a recount of votes in Karachi’s NA-249 by-elections.
According to details, the PML-N candidate had penned down a letter to the chief election commissioner seeking a vote recount in NA-249. He also requested the ECP to conduct a forensic audit of the votes in the NA-249 constituency.
In his letter, Ismail wrote that the party did not receive results from more than 30 polling stations. “We have serious concerns about the behaviour of some presiding officers,” he added.
He claimed that many Form 45s were not signed and that the counting of votes on the Form 45 given to the party is different from the forms issued by the returning officer (RO), which were not provided to them.
Ismail also claimed that the RO did not provide the polling stations wise result summary to the party. He asked the CEC to stop the ECP from finalising the results and order a recount of votes in all polling stations of NA-249.
The PPP secured victory in the NA-249 by-election held on Thursday in the city’s District West, with unofficial, provisional results showing a close contest between the PML-N and PPP in the final count.
PPP’s Abdul Qadir Mandokhel bagged 16,156 votes to win the seat, followed by PML-N’s Miftah Ismail who secured 15,473, unofficial results from polling stations showed.
