SWABI: Recounting of the votes polled during the by-election on PK-44, Swabi-II, continued on Wednesday on the request of Ghulam Hassan, the losing candidate of Awami National Party.

Mr Hassan, who was defeated by Aqibullah Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the by-election on Sunday, had submitted an application on Monday to the district returning officer, demanding vote recount. The recounting began on Tuesday. There was difference of 1,630 votes between the winning and losing candidates. Aqibullah had won the by-election, bagging 18,723 votes against ANP’s 17,093 votes.

When contacted, Mohammad Ishfaq, ANP leader, said: “The recounting has started and it will likely take two more days.”

To a question, he said the total rejected votes were 540, and their plea was that some rejected votes had been counted in favour of Mr Aqibullah. “Due to this objection, the DRO accepted our application and ordered recounting of votes,” said Mr Ishfaq. He claimed that the DRO had told him that if all the rejected votes were given to ANP candidate even then he won’t win.

Meanwhile, PTI leaders overseeing the recount claimed that the position of Aqibullah was strong and he would again emerge as the winner.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018