Low incidence of violence in Daska polls: FAFEN

ISLAMABAD: The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) says NA-75 Sialkot-IV (Daska) by-election witnessed low incidences of electoral violations, as procedures were generally transparent and election staff conducted the process with care and mostly in accordance with the prescribed regulations.

In its observation report on Daska re-poll, the network noted political competition was heightened following the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which was also maintained by the Supreme Court, to have re-poll in the constituency after reported incidents of rigging and irregularities during and after polling in by-election conducted earlier. Despite the third wave of COVID-19 and the controversies emerged in by-election, it said a large number of voters, both male and female, came out to exercise their right to vote in the re-poll held on April 10, 2021.

In this constituency of 494,003 registered voters, three political parties and six independent candidates were in the running. The Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Nosheen Iftikhar won the by-election by securing 110,075 of the polled votes, while the runner-up Ali Asjad Malhi, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate got 93,433 votes. According to the Provisional Consolidated Statement of the Result of the Count (Form-47), a total of 1,702 votes were excluded from the count.