NA-110 votes: Polling body locates missing record

ECP tells top court votes from 24 polling stations have been found

ISLAMABAD: The election authorities have ‘located’ the missing voting record of 24 polling stations on NA-110 (Sialkot), where Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had emerged victorious in the May 2013 general elections.

While Asif won the Sialkot seat with 92,803 votes, runner-up Usman Dar from the PTI, who secured 71,525 votes, had challenged the results in the election tribunal. Dar then approached the apex court after the tribunal rejected his plea.

NA-110 is one of the four constituencies where the PTI had sought vote audit and re-election through separate election petitions.

In January, the Supreme Court had ordered verification of votes in the Sialkot constituency within three months. On June 7, NADRA submitted its report, which the PTI candidate’s counsel rejected, saying it was missing at least 30,000 votes from 29 polling stations.

On Saturday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) informed the Supreme Court the vote record of 24 polling stations had been found while the record from five polling satiation was still missing.

ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh submitted a report in the apex court, which is hearing Dar’s appeal against the rejection of his petition by the election tribunal.

While the record from polling stations number 12, 21, 22, 38, 47, 54, 68, 73, 76, 84, 107, 116, 124, 132, 134, 138, 150, 170, 186, 202, 203, 215, 216 and 217 has been found, polling bags from stations number 81, 101, 118, 121 and 218 were said to be unavailable with the district account officer.

The NA-110 returning officer transmitted the counterfoils retrieved from the corresponding polling bags to NADRA. However, he has reported now the counterfoils from polling station 132 were missing and out of five missing polling bags, counterfoils of polling station 118 and 121 were also missing.

After the consolidation of results, the sealed polling bags containing both used and unused ballot papers and counterfoils are deposited in the respective treasury of the district account offices.

The ECP report states the officer has admitted receiving 227 sealed white polling bags from the returning officer. “The responsibility of the missing bags squarely lies on the district account officer concerned. The DAO is the custodian of election material on behalf of the ECP,” the report states. “The matter was placed before the chief election commissioner for appropriate order.”

In a separate application, the ECP has sought guidance from the top court for holding the elections for mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and deputy chairman in Sindh and Punjab after the retirement of the four members of the commission.

The application stated the commission was not functioning and the timeline of 90 days provided for the completion of the election process of the remaining local bodies in the province of Sindh could not be implemented.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2016.