ECP seeks evidence of vote sale in Senate elections from PTI MPA

• ECP has asked for evidence of the sale and purchase of votes in the recent Senate polls.
• KP Assembly Member Abdul Salam had earlier claimed that he had been approached for selling his vote during Senate polls.
  
• The lawmaker says the ECP had asked him to immediately hand them over the evidence.
  

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked for evidence of the sale and purchase of votes in the recent Senate polls, The News reported on Monday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly Member of PTI, Abdul Salam, had earlier claimed that during the Senate elections, he had been approached for selling his vote and he could also produce evidence in this regard.

The lawmaker said the ECP had asked him to immediately hand them over the evidence.

"I have a record of the WhatsApp chat, and will provide evidence to the Election Commission," he maintained.

Controversies around the Senate polls

The much-anticipated Senate polls ended with PTI emerging as the largest party in the upper house with 18 seats, followed by PPP with eight seats on March 3.

Read more: Senate Election 2021: PTI emerges as largest party, but victory bittersweet

The government, in the lead up to the polls, accused the Opposition of being involved in illegal practice by using money to gain votes, while the Opposition blamed the ruling PTI for raising the open ballot issue because it is not sure of its lawmakers’ loyalties.

The blame-game gained intensity when a video of Ali Haider Gilani, son of Pakistan Democratic Movement’s Senate candidate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, emerged in which he was allegedly telling the PTI MPAs how to discard votes.

The PPP leader admitted that he was in contact with the PTI members who had approached him to seek help.

Another audio of Sindh Minister Nasir Hussain Shah was widely shared on social media in which he was allegedly talking to PTI MPAs regarding the Senate election. The minister, however, has denied he ever talked to them and referred the matter to Ali Gilani.

The ruling PTI has approached the Election Commission against the election of Yousuf Raza Gilani who had defeated government’s candidate Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.