May 11 elections: Massive vote fraud uncovered in NA-256

NADRA says thousands of fake, duplicate votes cast in Karachi’s constituency.

FAISALABAD/ KARACHI:

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has unearthed massive rigging in the National Assembly constituency, NA-265 (Karachi), in the May 11 elections.

According to a report submitted by the authority before an election tribunal on Monday, over 57,000 votes could not be verified in the constituency where 5,893 duplicate and 1,950 fake votes were cast.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Iqbal Muhammad Ali had won the seat, defeating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Muhammad Zubair Khan, who later challenged the result of 67 polling stations before the election tribunal.

Subsequently, the tribunal head, Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, ordered Nadra on August 20 to verify the thumb impressions of the voters.

Complying with the tribunal’s direction, Nadra examined and compared the election material, including the statement of count and used counterfoils and photo electoral rolls at the polling stations to determine authenticity of the votes cast.



In its report, NADRA said the authority had received election material of 84,748 votes that were cast in the polling stations. During the examination and comparison process, 314 used counterfoils were found without fingerprints at polling station No 178 (66 votes) and polling station No 180 (21 votes).

A total of 6,815 votes were found authentic in the comparison process conducted with the help of the Automated Fingerprint Integrated System (AFIS), the report said.

This means the fingerprints affixed on the counterfoil at the time of issuance of ballot papers correctly matched with fingerprint data of voters held with NADRA in the citizens database against the same Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number.

“It was observed that one individual voted against multiple registered voters. For example one Waseem Anwar Hussain, a resident of Shah Faisal Colony, polled 35 votes at polling station No 54 against the registered voters,” according to the report.



The report said a large number of the fingerprints on the used counterfoils could not be processed with the AFIS. Therefore, as many as 57,642 bad quality fingerprints on the used counterfoils could not be verified during the verification process.

However, the CNIC numbers mentioned in such counterfoils were valid, and belonged to the same constituency, it added.

According to NADRA, invalid CNICs were mentioned on 11,343 used counterfoils, while 791 votes were found to be out of the constituency.

The report said duplicate voters’ fingerprints were found on 5,893 used counterfoils, while 314 used counterfoils lacked mandatory fingerprints of the voters. As many as 1,950 used counterfoils and the electoral rolls failed the fingerprints authentication process.

This is the second consecutive case, wherein massive irregularities and violations of the election laws have been detected by NADRA. Earlier the authority had found that many bogus votes were cast during the May 11 elections in NA-258 (Karachi).

Setback to PML-N

Over in Faisalabad, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz suffered a huge setback in the recent by-elections for PP-72 at the hands of PTI.

The constituency was considered a stronghold of the PML-N as its candidates have won this seat in four consecutive elections in 1997, 2002, 2008 and 2013.

In the May 11 elections, PML-N’s Khawaja Muhammad Islam won the seat. However, he was disqualified for submitting a fake degree and the Election Commission of Pakistan announced by-polls in the constituency.

In by-elections held on October 7, PML-N fielded Khwaja Muhammad’s brother Khawaja Liaqat against PTI’s Sheikh Khurram Shehzad. According to unofficial results, the PTI candidate bagged 23,972 votes against 18,256 of his rival.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2013.