ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has unearthed another fraud in the May 11 elections through verification of thumbprints on ballot papers polled in 16 polling stations of the National Assembly constituency NA-202 of Shikarpur, Sindh, Dawn has learnt. Sources quoting from a report submitted by Nadra to the election tribunal in Sukkur said a voter -- Hadi Bukhsh, son of Sakhi Jatoi and a resident of Khanpur district -- voted 310 times at a women’s polling station (No 209).

The seat was won by Ibrahim Jatoi of National Peoples Party (NPP) with a thin margin of 1,725 votes after a tough contest with former minister and PPP’s veteran leader Aftab Shaaban Mirani. Mr Jatoi bagged 54,890 votes against 53,165 votes for Mr Mirani.

This is the third National Assembly constituency where bogus voting has been detected by Nadra after verification of voters’ thumbprints. Earlier, similar discrepancies had been detected in two NA seats from Karachi.

After hearing arguments from both the sides, the tribunal had sought technical support from Nadra, directing it to carry out verification of thumb impressions of 16,649 votes. The sources said that Nadra’s system could not read 58 per cent of the thumbprints because of bad quality ink or submerged fingerprints affixed on the used counterfoils and electoral rolls.

The inquiry found 2,283 invalid computerised national identity cards (CNICs) numbers mentioned on the used counterfoils, showing that 14 per cent of the voters had used imaginary or fictitious CNICs to poll votes. Counterfoils without any CNIC number have also been found.

The Nadra report has also pointed out 1,098 duplicate or multiple voters. It says the thumbprints of 1,133 voters did not match with the corresponding CNICs on the voters’ list which means somebody else had voted in their place.

Only 2,320 of the 16,469 voters’ whose fingerprints were successfully authenticated on used counterfoils can be regarded as genuine voters, says the report.

Despite repeated attempts, both the candidates could not be contacted for their comments.