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Sunday December 01, 2024

NA-231 ballots were destroyed in police presence during fresh count, election tribunal told

By Jamal Khurshid
October 26, 2024
People at the regional election office after the masked men escaped in Karachi, on October 11, 2024. — Screengrab/GeoNews
People at the regional election office after the masked men escaped in Karachi, on October 11, 2024. — Screengrab/GeoNews

An election tribunal of the Sindh High Court (SHC) has been informed that bags containing votes of of four polling stations of NA-231 Malir have been burnt by unidentified people who attacked the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) office in the presence of a heavy contingent of police during recount of votes.

The information to this effect was conveyed to the election tribunal by the regional election commissioner and recounting officer of NA-231 Malir in a report submitted on Friday.

The report stated that unidentified people damaged the election office furniture and forcibly took away the polling bags of the four polling stations 65, 71, 98 and 175 in the presence of police and burnt them in front of the ECP building.

The election tribunal had earlier directed the provisional election commissioner to nominate an officer to act as returning officer to examine and recount all the ballots cast at the four polling stations of the National Assembly constituency NA-231 Malir-III.

The order had come on an election petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Khalid Mehmood Ali against the election results of NA-231, in which the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Abdul Hakeem Baloch was declared the returned candidate.

Filing his report on the destruction of the election record before the election tribunal, the recounting officer said that the Rangers director general had also been approached to provide security for recounting process but despite such request, the Rangers did not provide security.

The tribunal was informed that CCTV footage and video clips had also been attached with the report. The recounting officer said that the FIR of the incident had been lodged against unidentified persons at the Preedy police station.

It is pertinent to mention that the PTI candidate had 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, were ignored for now, a case for four polling stations’ vote recount was 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, the petitioner had argued.

Headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry, the tribunal said that in the final consolidation of Form 49, the petitioner was indeed the runner-up only behind 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 had challenged the order before the SHC, and the plea was disposed of by referring the matter to the ECP to consider it under the Section 9 of the Elections Act, but the ECP dismissed the application on the grounds that the petitioner could avail remedy before the election tribunal.

The tribunal noted that a certified copy of Form 45 for polling station No. 65, DMC Boys & Girls School, Lal Kothi, Mansehra Colony, showed 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 returned 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 appeared to be a manipulation of 1,000 votes to favour the returned candidate and the facts were sufficient to order a vote recount.