February 22, 2008	Friday	Safar 14, 1429

SWABI, Feb 21: Recounting of votes in NA-12 (Swabi-I) and PF-36 (Swabi-VI) constituencies, which started on Wednesday and continued on Thursday, may take a week due to the lengthy process of thorough examination of each and every vote.

The Awami National Party demanded recounting, rechecking and withholding of the official result till inclusion of postal ballots. “First it was expected that it will take a day but going through the recounting experience I think it will definitely take a week,” said ANP’s district information secretary Mohammad Rashid.

A large number of ANP workers stayed at the district kutchehry during the recounting.

Sources said that so far ballot papers of only 11 polling stations had been recounted. The total number of polling stations in NA-12 is 248 and 110,000 votes had been polled. ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan had received 49,652 votes and Swabi Jamhoori Ittehad candidate Usman Khan Tarakai received 49,741 votes.

In the recounting process, Salim Khan, former provincial general secretary of the ANP, and Jehan Zeb Khan, district party general secretary, are representing Asfandyar Wali Khan and the SJI candidate is represented by Amir Mohammad and Basharat.

It is learnt that the number of postal ballots is about 400, which are yet to be checked.

In the PF-36 constituency, Sarfaraz Khan Jadoon was declared winner with 9,981 votes, defeating Amir Saeed who polled 9546 votes. Meanwhile, the unofficial result of PF-34 (Swabi-IV) was announced, declaring independent candidate Sardar Ali the winner with 9,752 votes. Abdul Karim of the PPP-S was the runner-up with 8,418 votes. The result of this constituency had been withheld due to a dispute over voting in one polling station.

TIMERGARA: The returning officer for the PF-95 constituency (Dir-II), Sultan Shah, on Thursday rejected an application of PPP candidate Rahmatullah for recounting, sources told Dawn.