ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) sent the case pertaining to Karachi’s PS-114 by-election vote recount to the relevant election tribunal on Thursday.
The Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) had filed a petition alleging that the results of the recent PS-114 by-polls, where Pakistan Peoples Party’s Saeed Ghani emerged victorious, were tampered.
The MQM had also requested the commission to order recounting of the votes of the entire constituency and the National Database and Registration Authority to verify thumb impressions of all the votes cast.
With the ECP order, the stay on issuance of a notification about Ghani's victory in the by-election stands void. The notification delcaring the PPP candidate as the winner was issued shortly after the decision.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, Ghani remarked that the results of the by-polls were not shocking as the PPP has a strong vote base there.
"However, the MQM’s candidate thought they would win. They spent so much money and even threatened us yet we beat them fair and square,” said Ghani.
At first, MQM workers and leaders congratulated me on the win, said Ghani, adding “after three days they remembered that rigging occurred.”
On Wednesday’s hearing, MQM-P’s counsel Farogh Naseem told Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan that the election rules were violated when votes were being counted for 21 polling stations of the constituency.
He added that the returning officer did not issue a notice to his client, Tessori, when the votes were being counted.
However, Ghani’s counsel, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, said people were voting for PPP after the MQM cut ties with its founder, Altaf Hussain.
Ahsan had said MQM-Pakistan should take the issue up with the election tribunal if they have a problem with the results of the by-election.
On July 13, the ECP had withheld the notification of Karachi’s PS-114 by-election result, where Ghani had proven to be victorious.
Moreover, a ballot box was discovered in a private car in the city’s Mehmoodabad area earlier, prompting MQM to reiterate claims that the PS-114 by-election was ‘rigged’.
On July 9, Ghani had emerged victorious in the by-polls, by bagging 23,840 votes, according to unofficial and unconfirmed results from all 92 polling stations.
Ghani was followed by MQM-P's Tessori, who secured 18,106 votes.
In the May 2013 General Elections, PS-114 was bagged by Irfanullah Marwat on a PML-N ticket but his victory was declared void by the election tribunal in July 2014 and had been vacant since.
On May 11, the Supreme Court dismissed Marwat’s appeal challenging the election tribunal’s decision paving the way for the by-polls.
In the July 9 by-polls, Marwat was supporting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate, who only managed to bag a few thousand votes.