ECP schedules recount of four polling stations of NA-231 for Oct 11

karachi: The Election Commission of Pakistan has scheduled recount of four polling stations of the National Assembly constituency NA-231 Malir at the regional election commission office on October 11.

An election tribunal of the SHC had directed the provincial election commissioner to nominate an officer to act as a returning officer to examine and recount all the ballots cast at four polling stations of NA-231.

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 the 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 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 returning officer in respect of those polling stations, he added.

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

and 175.

It ordered that the result of the recount and reconsolidation, as aforesaid, should be submitted by the recounting officer to the registrar of the tribunal.