KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) completed recounting of votes cast at the 276 polling stations of the NA-249 constituency on Saturday — the third consecutive day of the exercise — in which PPP candidate again emerged as winner.

On April 29, the day of the polling, PPP candidate Qadir Khan Mandokhail had obtained 16,106 votes while Miftah Ismail of PML-N had secured 15,473 votes, according to provisional results.

On Mr Ismail’s request, the ECP ordered the vote recount. Initially, the candidates of PML-N, PTI, MQM-P, and Pak Sarzameen Party boycotted the recounting while eight other candidates, including those of PPP and the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakis­tan, took part in the process.

According to unofficial results, a total of 3,162 votes were rejected. The results showed that the PPP candidate got 15,656 votes, the PML-N’s 14,747, TLP’s Nazeer Kamalvi 10,668, PSP’s Mustafa Kamal 8,728, PTI’s Amjad Afridi 8,681 and MQM-P’s Hafiz Mursaleen 7,007 votes.

Earlier, the PPP candidate had won the seat with the margin of 633 votes but in the recount, his victory margin increased to 909, showing he received 273 more votes.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021