Recount of all votes cast at four NA-231 polling stations ordered

An election tribunal of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the provisional election commissioner to nominate an officer to act as returning officer to examine and recount all the ballots cast at four polling stations of the National Assembly constituency NA-231 (Malir-III).

The direction came on an election petition filed by Khalid Mehmood Ali, a candidate backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), against the election results of NA-231, where the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Abdul Hakeem Baloch was declared returned candidate.

The applicant’s counsel requested that the application with regard to the recounting of the votes of the four polling stations be decided first, which would help decide the petition. He said that the difference of votes between the petitioner and the returned candidate was only of 389.

Even if the Forms 45’s photocopies, relied upon by the petitioner, are ignored for now, a case for four polling stations’ vote recount is made out at the very least on the basis of certified copies of Forms 45 and 46 issued by the RO in respect of those polling stations, he added.

Headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry, the tribunal said that in the final consolidation in Form 49, the petitioner was indeed the runner-up, behind only by 389 votes, a margin less than five per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency.

The tribunal said the record shows that on February 9 the petitioner applied to the RO for a recount under Section 95(5) of the Elections Act, but the application was turned down through an order on February 10.

It added that the petitioner challenged the order before the SHC, and the plea was disposed of by referring the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to consider it under Section 9 of the Elections Act, but the ECP dismissed the application on the grounds that the petitioner had a remedy before the election tribunal.

The tribunal said that a certified copy of Form 45 for polling station No. 65, DMC Boys & Girls School, Lal Kothi, Mansehra Colony, shows that the votes counted from the ballot box in favour of candidate Jameel Ahmed Khan (respondent No. 7) were 102, but surprisingly, he was given the benefit of 353 tendered votes.

It said that as per Section 85 of the Elections Act, “tendered ballot papers” are those which are issued to a person who claims to be the same voter who has already cast a vote. Such ballot papers are put in separate packets so as to enable the ECP to conduct a forensic inquiry, it added.

The tribunal said that it was the petitioner’s case that the so-called tendered votes amounting to 353 were in fact counted as his votes, as reflected in the Form 45 filed as Annexure E to the petition.

It said that the certified copy of Form 45 for polling station No. 71, Government Girls Primary School, Jamal Goth, shows that the petitioner received 24 votes, and Khan received seven votes.

However, it added, the consolidation in Form 48 for the same polling station erroneously records the petitioner’s votes as zero and those of Khan as 24. The tribunal said that the certified copy of Form 45 for polling station No. 98, Karachi Public School, Star Gate, shows that the figure of 275 votes against the petitioner’s name was struck out, and those votes have been shown in favour of Khan.

It said that it is the petitioner’s case that those 275 votes were recorded as his votes, as reflected in the Form 45 filed as Annexure E/4 to the petition. It also said that as per the certified copy of Form 45 for polling station No. 175, Government Boys Primary School, Gharibabad, returned candidate Baloch received 672 votes out of a total of 890 votes.

Contrary to that, it added, the certified copy of Form 46 of the same polling station shows that the total votes polled were 1,890, instead of 890, and the consolidation of those votes in Form 48 also records the votes of the retuned candidate as 1,672, instead of 672.

The tribunal said that there is also force in the submission that even the corresponding polling stations for the provincial assembly seat did not record as many voters. It said that prima facie, there appears to be a manipulation of 1,000 votes to favour the returned candidate. The facts mentioned in the application are sufficient to order a vote recount for those polling stations, it added.

The tribunal ordered the ECP to nominate an officer of the commission, not being the officer who acted as RO of the subject constituency, to examine and recount all the ballots cast at NA-231’s polling stations No. 65, No. 71, No. 98 and No. 175.

It ordered that the result of the recount and reconsolidation, as aforesaid, should be submitted by the recounting officer to the registrar of this tribunal within three weeks under the cover of a report, whereafter any candidate desiring to file objections thereto may do so within seven days.