ECP to issue fresh notification declaring MQM’s Izhar Ahmed winner. PHOTO: FILE
The election results in the problematic DMC West have been changed once again, with MQM candidate Izhar Ahmed having been declared the winning candidate for chairman by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). After this development, the party will now run a total of four DMCs in Karachi along with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
Challenged and nullified
On August 24, MQM candidates Ahmed and Gul Faraz Khattak were contesting for chairman and vice-chairman positions against Karachi Ittehad's candidates, Asif Khan for chairman and Azizullah Afridi for vice-chairman. At the eleventh hour, the PTI reportedly parted ways with the joint opposition parties and announced its support for the MQM candidate.
The initial result revealed that Ahmed got 36 votes, defeating Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz's (PML-N) Khan who could only secure 31 votes. Meanwhile, PTI candidate Afridi was declared vice-chairman after he secured 44 votes. This irked PML-N and its coalition partners, who protested against the result alleging that the MQM had rigged the polls.
On the objection raised by the Karachi Ittehad, the returning officer (RO) withheld the results after he found numerals and alphabets on 24 ballot papers polled in favour of the MQM candidate. Resultantly, the results in favour of Ahmed were nullified and Khan was declared victorious by the RO, after a recounting the next day.
Challenged again
Meanwhile, the MQM did not accept the nullified results and challenged the RO's decision in the ECP through Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif.
"After MQM has challenged the final results, the ECP has restored the first result and declared its candidate as winner," said the provincial ECP spokesperson, adding that a notification will soon be issued.
An official of ECP, Islamabad, explained that the RO's decision was set aside in Thursday's meeting of the MQM counsel with the chief election commissioner in Islamabad. He said that the RO can only recount the votes and cannot decide the results on his own. Now, the decision of the presiding officer taken on the day of the election (August 24) has been declared legitimate, he said, adding that a notification will soon be issued regarding the development.
MQM candidate victorious
Officials in the ECP said that of the total 67 votes in DMC West, Ahmed has once again bagged 36 votes and his runner-up, Khan, secured 31 votes.
MQM leader Aminul Haq was of the view that his party's candidate had actually won the chairman seat, but the RO concerned recounted the vote and gave the decision in favour of the PML-N candidate because of political pressure. "Looking at the situation, we requested the ECP to review the situation and we have finally won this seat," he said.
On the other hand, PML-N candidate Khan said that they have started consultation with senior party leaders and constitution experts to challenge the ECP's decision in the court of law.
*With additional input from Hafeez Tunio
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2016.
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