PPP hails ECP’s decision of recounting vote in NA-249 by-poll

ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentarians Senator Farhatullah Babar has said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided a recount in constituency NA-249 at the request of PML-N in the by-elections and while we welcome this decision the manner in which such a situation was handled in the 2018 elections was very different. Addressing a press conference along with Secretary General PPP Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari here on Sunday he said that PPP wants to put forward some important points about the by-election of NA-249. The Election Commission has decided to recount at the request of PML-N. This is their right, he added.Farhatullah Babar said, “We welcome it and want to see the Election Commission of Pakistan strong. Same was said in the 2018 elections that where the winning margin was less than 5% it should have been recounted. The recount was to be held in 34 constituencies which were not conducted. Only the recount of two constituencies started and was stopped and never completed.”

He said that this constituency NA-249 was not new to the PPP. The PPP candidate from this constituency had also won in the 1988 elections. He said, “The PPP does not have a large majority of votes in this constituency but we have considerable support for the PPP. The PPP has shown groundwork activism and has now won”, he added.

He said that the internet is being tampered with in the name of security in Pakistan. Electronic voting will be more dangerous here. The countries that started it have also given up on using electronic voting machines. He said that this government is not serious about negotiating with the opposition. They are incompetent. He said many of the countries that started this experiment gave up and Imran Khan should know that there is a report by Nadra about EVM.

Speaking on the occasion Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said that the ground realities are very clear. PPP candidate has been present in this constituency. Qadir Mandokhel is a political activist. He has experimented with other political parties in the past like PML-N and PTI. In NA-249 the PML-N introduced another technocrat Miftah Ismail who also lost, he added.