Post elections: ROs told to submit poll results today

Candidates winning multiple seats will have to pick one before taking oath.

ISLAMABAD:

Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan on Sunday said legal procedure is being followed to count votes and returning officers (RO) have been directed to submit results for all seats by May 13.

While addressing a press conference at the ECP Secretariat, he said that consolidated results will be compiled once ROs send in the final official data. Winning candidates will be notified soon after that, he added.

The votes are being counted as per the section 39 of People Representative Act and the election commission is waiting to receive results from all the polling stations, he added.

Assuring transparency he said, “The presiding officers have already provided the unofficial results to the media. ECP will make sure no tampering with results occur and justice is done with all candidates.”

So far, final results for 44 seats of national assembly and 122 seats of provincial assemblies have been received by the poll body.



Explaining the cause for delay, Ishtiaq said that to ensure transparency ROs have to go through legal procedures that take time. “After completion of the counting of votes in any polling station, the ROs are supposed to fill out a form-14, which is then required to be sealed in a plastic bag to ensure the results are not tampered with.”

He added that there is delay in receiving results from some far-flung areas, particularly of Balochistan, however he assured that these will not affect the results.

Addressing independent candidates, the secretary of the commission said that those who win will have to decide, within three days of receiving the notification, if they want to join a political party or continue as an independent candidate.

He also said that candidates winning multiple seats will have to pick one before oath taking ceremony.

By-elections on the vacant seats will be held by the end of July.

The secretary ECP also said that the chief election commissioner has reached Karachi to address, on the basis of facts, the complaints received by the commission from seven NA and 14 provincial assembly constituencies of the city.

“We will look into the matter as to why such incidents are occurring repeatedly in Karachi.”

He added that ECP will also get feedback from the international observers and the EU mission which was closely monitoring the entire election process.

He also said that candidates should approach the Election Tribunals regarding their complaints, which are bound to decide upon the matter within 120 days.

The first NA session will be held within 20 days of the election and it will have to elect speaker and leader of the lower house within 60 days.

Talking about reserved and minority seats, he said that ECP will start working on it based on the names already submitted by the political parties after compilation of consolidated results. The result will be based upon the ratio of the seats won by each party in the national assembly and provincial assemblies, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2013.