KARACHI: All mainstream political parties, except Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), on Thursday boycotted recounting of votes in NA-249 (Karachi West-II) constituency — where a by-election was held last week — over the alleged non-provision of Form 45 and 46.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ordered a recount of votes in NA-249 on the request of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Miftah Ismail who had lost the April 29 election to PPP’s Abdul Qadir Mandokhel.
The candidates of PML-N, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and other political parties boycotted the recounting.
Talking to reporters outside the office of the commission’s Sindh chapter, Amjad Afridi of the PTI said the contestants demanded of the ECP to provide Form 45 and 46 and until it is given, the recounting of the votes is unacceptable.
Afridi claimed the votes bags brought for recounting were even not sealed.
Ismail claimed that were denied provision of Form 45 and 46 by the officials at the election commission. “We are not provided with the record of used and unused ballot papers.”
The first bag opened for recounting was unsealed and, upon asking the officials, we were told the seal might have been broken while transporting the bags, he said.
He said the audit cannot be carried out without the provision of Form 46. “I don’t know why Form 46 is not given to them.”
According to provisional results, Mandokhail had secured 16,156 votes to win the election while Ismail came in second with 15,473 votes, followed by now-prescribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) which secured 11,125 votes.
PSP chief Mustafa Kamal came fourth with 9,227 votes, followed by Afridi with 8,922 votes.
The NA seat was created in 2018 by amalgamating neighbourhoods that previously fell in two National Assembly constituencies — NA-239 and NA-240 — during three general elections between 2002 and 2013.
The constituency, with 339,591 registered voters, has emerged to be a highly contested seat with candidates belonging to almost every major political party fighting for it.
It had fallen vacant after Faisal Vawda, who had won it on a PTI ticket, resigned from his seat to run for the Senate.
PML-N REQUEST FOR VOTE COUNT:
Last week, the commission had withheld the results on Ismail’s request for a recount, fixing the hearing in the petition for May 4.
“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.
First they said they want a recount and now they are boycotting. They Just want to regain power with the weakest card possible : “Victim card”. In poor and uneducated countries like Pakistan, India etc this card is extremely effective.
Imran has only time till 2023. He is losing the next term and Nawaz and his children will rule for coming decades. This is exactly this illiterate population wants. So be it. They dont deserve Imran.