The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has exhibited bias attitude when it accepted PML-N candidate Miftah Ismail’s request for a vote recount in NA 249 constituency by-election while rejected the similar plea of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Amjad Afridi.
The ECP accepted Miftah’s plea on Saturday while it rejected Amjad’s request on Friday.
Miftah has written a letter to the chief election commissioner seeking a vote recount. The PML-N has also requested the ECP to conduct a forensic audit of the votes.
In his plea, Amjad alleged rigging and challenged the results of 21 polling stations.
Miftah wrote that presiding officers from 34 polling stations did not send him results on WhatsApp.
“We did not receive results from more than 30 polling stations. We have serious concerns about the behaviour of some presiding officers,” he said, adding that many Form 45 were not signed.
He said the returning officer was not following the law and not directing a recount of votes despite minor difference in votes.
He said that the RO did not provide the result summary according to the polling stations.
Miftah asked the CEC to stop the ECP from finalising the results and recount votes.
He alleged that the RO has shown bias by rejecting all their requests as more than half of the Form 45 were not signed by the RO.
The PPP won by-election held on Thursday in the Karachi city’s District West.
According to unofficial results, PPP’s Abdul Qadir Mandokhel bagged 16,156 votes as against PML-N’s Miftah Ismail 15,473.
