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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-notified on Monday National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq as MNA from NA-122 (Lahore-V) with effect from Aug 22.
The ECP issued the notification after receiving the verdict of an election tribunal in Lahore which had declared the election void and ordered a by-election in the constituency. The tribunal annulled the results while allowing a petition of PTI chief Imran Khan who had challenged the election of Ayaz Sadiq.
Ayaz Sadiq, a candidate of the PML-N, had defeated Imran Khan in the 2013 general elections. Mr Sadiq bagged 93,389 votes and Mr Khan 84,517.
The former speaker has announced that he will challenge the tribunal’s decision in the Supreme Court.
A senior PML-N leader said that Mr Sadiq’s lawyers had prepared a comprehensive petition.
NA-122 was among the four constituencies where the PTI had been demanding verification of voters’ thumbprint. The other three are NA-110 (Sialkot), NA-125 (Lahore) and NA-154 (Lodhran).
BIOMETRIC PROJECT: The ECP has announced the biometric results of the by-election in NA-19 (Haripur) held on Aug 16. The biometric system was introduced for the first time as a pilot project in 30 polling stations of the constituency.
According to a statement issued by the ECP, 60 biometric machines were used at 60 polling booths. The total number of registered voters in 30 polling stations was 37,924 and 15,723 votes were polled. The turnout was 41 per cent.
As per readings recorded by Nadra, the biometrically verified voters were 46pc and unverified 54pc. The reasons for unverified votes were because of non-availability of fingerprints in Nadra database, invalid or blocked CNIC and calloused fingers.
The ECP said the entire exercise had been carried out purely on an experimental basis and the impact – positive or negative – of use of biometric machines did not disturb the electoral process.
It said the project was successful because its main objective was to practically examine on ground the overall performance of processes and procedures carried out during the test run of biometric machines.
The commission said that multiple pilot projects using biometrics would continue in different by-elections till the achievement of successful rate close to perfection where no legitimate voter would be deprived of being authenticated only because of any technical or operational reason.
BY-POLL SCHEDULE: The ECP has announced that by-election in PP-16 (Attock-II) will be held on Oct 6.
The seat fell vacant after the killing of Punjab home minister Shuja Khanzada in a suicide attack on Aug 16.
Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015
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