KARACHI, Oct 26: Mohammad Idrees Siddiqui of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement re-emerged as winner after recounting of votes in the Sindh Assembly constituency PS-103, which completed at about 7pm on Saturday.
It was the sixth day of recounting carried out at the Sir Syed Girls College, Nazimabad, by the returning officer, additional district and sessions judge Mohammad Riaz Shaikh, in presence of the contesting candidates, their attorney and polling agents.
In the un-official results announced on TV, Mohammad Idrees Siddiqui had been declared winner with a margin of 573 votes against the MMA candidate, but in the recounting this difference increased to 868.
However, the recounting continued in PS-118 on Saturday where 48 out of the 90 polling stations were covered.
Likewise, in NA-255, the recounting remained inconclusive as only 46 polling stations out of the 194 were covered till Saturday evening.
The recounting was ordered by the election commission after receiving objections in which it was pointed out that at the closing of the voting, MMA candidates - Aslam Mujahid from NA- 255, Mohammad Muslim from PS-103 and Syed Qutub Ahmed from PS-118 - were unofficially declared winners.
However, when unofficial results were announced on the PTV and Radio Pakistan, Mehmood Qureshi of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement from NA-255 and Mohammad Idrees Siddiqui and Faisal Sabzwari of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement from PS-103 and PS-118 were shown as elected.
Meanwhile, during a visit to the city courts on Saturday where recounting was being carried out for NA-255, officials involved with the process told Dawn that the recounting was a slow process than counting of votes on the election day, as every presiding officer of the polling station carries out the exercise and records the outcome of the ballot box on the polling day, while in the recounting process the returning officer has to carry out the whole exercise of all the polling stations in a particular constituency.
The returning officer, additional district and sessions judge Kausar Bokhari declined to make any statement about the ongoing recounting process. However, on insistence he said the speed of recounting in any manner was not an unusual pace. He had to go through ballots of 194 poling stations, certainly the process was going to take time, he added.
In the hall, where recounting was going on, only candidates, lawyers or their polling agents were allowed to seat. However, on the request of journalists, they were allowed by the RO to observe the process.
Every time when a bag of a polling station was opened containing envelopes of ballots, used and unused, cast in favour of a candidate, including the rejected, challenged and tender votes, they all had to be re-recorded.
MMA candidate Aslam Mujahid, in a statement, demanded of the election commission to order re-polling in the entire constituency of NA-255, as, he said, during the recounting grave irregularities were being committed.
He claimed that out of the 46 polling stations, where so far recounting had been carried out, the seal of bags of 12 polling stations was found broken.
Likewise, he said, on Saturday during the recounting sealing of bags of polling stations Nos 31,32, 35 and 45 were found broken and all papers were found except the used and unused ballots.
Mr Mujahid alleged that from the four bags of the four polling stations, according to record, two thousands used and 1,500 unused ballots had disappeared.
He said during the recounting, so far, they had filed 55 objections against violation of recounting rules, but without any results.
