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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday concluded its probe into allegations that polling for NA-68 (Sargodha) had been rigged, DawnNews reported.
According to the probe, on a polling station number for the constituency, Nawaz Sharif secured 779 out of the total 1500 votes polled but these were written as 7879.
Sources told DawnNews that the probe suggested a huge difference between the results given by the returning and presiding officers.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has said that the differences in the numbers of votes was due to a typing mistake.
Additional Secretary ECP Syed Sher Afghan said the difference in figures was due to the typist's mistake, adding that the ECP did not need to call a meeting in this case.
No more than the total number of registered votes were polled, he said, adding that no further probe was needed to be held in the matter.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had alleged rigging in NA-68, a seat won by Prime Minister Sharif in the May 11 general elections and retained by his party in the bye-elections held on Aug 22 last year.
Khan had alleged that over 100 per cent votes were polled at polling station number 246 in NA-68 constituency. He claimed that over 8,000 votes were polled while the number of registered voters was around 1,500.
Sharif won the 2013 polls from NA-68 with a huge margin. He secured 140,546 votes while his closest rival Noor Hayat Kalyar of PTI could bag only 45,463 votes followed by Syed Nusrat Ali Shah of PPP who secured 21,395 votes.
Former secretary ECP Kunwar Dilshad said election results were tampered with, adding that rigging was made possible through collusion with the presiding and returning officers.
Dilshad added that if any more of Khan's allegations turned out to be true, questions would be raised over the vaidity of the parliament.
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On DawnNews
Comments (65) Closed
May 21, 2014 03:17pm
ghalti se mistake ho gyi :P
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May 21, 2014 03:25pm
What a country??????????????
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May 21, 2014 03:33pm
A very, very, very lame excuse
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May 21, 2014 03:36pm
It is the right of people of Pakistan to know what went wrong in these elections and how their mandate was disregarded. It is at the same time important for the ECP to identify what mistakes happened in these elections so they can be corrected in next elections in 4 years. If not, then expect a major boycott from all opposition parties and a voter turn out less then 30 %. I do not have a problem with any party winning the elections as long as they won fairly and reflect the wishes of the nation.
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May 21, 2014 03:36pm
Good but what is the Point as seat was retained by PMLN in Bye Election except to place Question Mark on Credibility of Election and as a result whole Democratic Setup which is already in all smog
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May 21, 2014 03:38pm
Can't we send our Election Commission to India to go and learn from them, how they conduct their elections in such a huge country? There is no harm in acquiring knowledge, be it from a non-muslim.
We can implement procedures similar to India, to ensure that there are no riggings next time around.
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May 21, 2014 03:39pm
IK was right!
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May 21, 2014 03:40pm
It appears that by concluding the probe so soon - within no time - and by pointing out just
one mistake the ECP is trying to be-fool the masses. This mistake will have no effect on
the favourable result and so it is necessary that the main allegation of rigging is thoroughly
probed without which nothing would be achieved.
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May 21, 2014 03:42pm
PTI critics would be silent now
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May 21, 2014 03:43pm
LoL.....isn't this joke ??? Writing 779 as 7879.....LOL
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May 21, 2014 03:46pm
NICE WORK IK, Keep it up....Show them their real face
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May 21, 2014 03:46pm
100-200 votes ki hera pherri tasleem kar li jasakhti hai per 1000 votes... kuch ziyada nahi hai???
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May 21, 2014 03:47pm
Good Lord! - and you still dont trust The Khan when he says that the entire process was sabotaged?
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May 21, 2014 03:51pm
A Nation will only rise when we get rid of the corrupt and the deceivers. Long live Pakistan, Long Live Imran Khan.
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May 21, 2014 03:54pm
So here we go
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May 21, 2014 03:57pm
PTI - good work. This is how the system is improved. One step at a time. Slow and steady wins the race. Thank you
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May 21, 2014 04:07pm
So those who said PTI failed.Where are they now? Proven rigging reports! PTI had 70 seats secured in NA.
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May 21, 2014 04:08pm
Is there any surprise.imran is not crying for nothing.this is a small tip of iceberg.
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May 21, 2014 04:09pm
it required one year for the people in the ECP to realize the difference of 1500 and 8000.
Wow and that also on a high profile constituency where the PM had won.
I am getting Acidity
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May 21, 2014 04:11pm
even then this seat was already won by pml n after by election ..pity for PTI trying to divert attention from fail kpk government .just 4 seat issue and a huge drama.After recounting and everything this seat already had by election .plz stop IK TO MAKE FOOLS.
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May 21, 2014 04:13pm
There is no fluke that we earned the reputation of one of the most corrupt country in the world.
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May 21, 2014 04:16pm
even if rigging on one polling station, still the nawaz won by huge margin
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May 21, 2014 04:27pm
EVEN then its will be still pml n and the most imp thing this seat already had byelection,and another candidate won that seat.
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May 21, 2014 04:35pm
Just tip of the iceberg, more to come. People of Pakistan should understand what they see and told by their so called democratic leaders, is not true at all.
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May 21, 2014 04:46pm
I wont comment on the issue of rigging but we should give benefit of the doubt to the typist 7879 can easily be a typo for 779 because of the close proximity of the two keys & the immense data size
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May 21, 2014 04:56pm
What a ridiculous finding by the ECP. Sounds unbelievable
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May 21, 2014 04:57pm
@Ayaz
After realizing their mistake. The PMLN bandits quickly removed the extra votes from ECP to make the figure 7879 look like 779. Do you think we are dumb people??? Do u think we are not educated?? Do you think we are insane and our head need medical attention?? You are just fooling your self PMLN. Your gov end is very near. Wait and watch.
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May 21, 2014 05:05pm
Why PTI is happy on the decision of Election Commission which they do not TRUST and have demanded it to resign. If system is allowed to work it definitely gives Result but we are so impatient that we can not wait for the Right Time. We always love to do Justice in Streets by the Mob not in the Frame Work of System
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May 21, 2014 05:08pm
Perhaps this was what IK was referring to fixing punctures, so start counting, this is 1/35 punctures !!!!
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May 21, 2014 05:08pm
ECP says no DHANDLI , I should have contested in the elections may be
I would have gotten 10,000 votes but due to typing mistakes I would have
bagged 100,000
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May 21, 2014 05:12pm
@Rashid Ishaq
Idea of recounting is not to tople govt. Perhaps even after rigging PML-N will get majority of votes. But we need to ask ourselves here, why PML-N did rigging, if they were confident of winning they should have come straight and clean.
The very idea of rigging shows, PML-N did not had any confidence in their own abilities to get people vote. Shame !!!
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May 21, 2014 05:23pm
@javeria how can he succeed in fooling you who has already been fooled tremendously.
Bewaqoof ko bewaqoof bananay mein aqalmandi nahi hai?
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May 21, 2014 05:25pm
@Rashid Ishaq The only polling station here was identified explicitly. Perhaps (IMO, for sure) rigging took place in other stations as well.
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May 21, 2014 05:33pm
@Aamer Khawaja
If it would have been any other "maja gama" candidate - i could understand your point - but a seat of the head of a party and a possible future PM - the typist would have checked the page 10 times before finalizing it !!!
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May 21, 2014 05:33pm
I wonder how many other typos influenced the total count?
I mean just a TYPO?
In a process where we tell people that every vote counts, they are dismissing it to a typo?
Why are people that committed the typo not being apprehended? This is an important process of the so called democracy.
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May 21, 2014 05:36pm
it means some contestants may have won the election because of same mistake
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May 21, 2014 05:37pm
This government is illegal and illegitimate if they won through rigging.
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May 21, 2014 05:38pm
@haris Its not 1000. its 7100 to be exact.
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May 21, 2014 05:40pm
Blind followers will not believe. Pity on this country where upper urban class not accepting mandate of people. Look on people like Kanwar Dilshad ex Secretary ECP who was instrumental in rigging of 2008 elections and of 2002. PTI party of fashion ate and let them entertain through rallies and press conferences.
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May 21, 2014 05:41pm
Social media would destabilize all this ECP and democracy would be rolled for ever due to Face book PM
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May 21, 2014 06:01pm
@Aamer Khawaja benefit of doubt? This is a matter of electoral integrity. This is something they should have verified, re-verified and further re-verified. In a process where even a single vote counts, a typo of this magnitude should be punishable by law.
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May 21, 2014 06:05pm
Mark these words.........." This is the end of PML (N) government"! The wheels have been put in motion and there is no stopping it now.
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May 21, 2014 06:08pm
cover-up
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May 21, 2014 06:19pm
What measure did ECP took when they found out that it's was a clerical mistake, did they check with the clerk and his supervisor ? What is the guarantee that other results are not clerical mistakes? Does anyone supervise the system or everyone is sleeping?. What a shame when we compare our tiny elections to the humangous elections in India with no rigging and no clerical errors.
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May 21, 2014 06:40pm
Such an innocent mistake? Unbelievable.
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May 21, 2014 06:40pm
So how many such mistakes would have been made to conclude such results! worth knowing!
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May 21, 2014 07:11pm
At least check if the votes add up or not before publishing the results to avoid such embarrassing mistakes.
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May 21, 2014 07:18pm
Free and Fair RIGGING !
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May 21, 2014 07:39pm
@Rashid Ishaq ,
How we know that the constituency Nawaz Sharif was declared a winner was not rigged.
Elections in Punjab was rigged on a huge scale, other provinces may not be that bad.
I think the parliament is false and illegal, it should be dissolved with a new election.
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May 21, 2014 08:55pm
Typing error, umm! What next.
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May 21, 2014 09:02pm
Mr Imran Khan cricket is very different than Pakistani politics, now you know about the typing mistake, you are naive in Pakistani politics you should have know that you are dealing with-----?
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May 21, 2014 09:22pm
What a piece of engineering!!!
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May 21, 2014 09:36pm
IK keep it up. Cover up.
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May 21, 2014 09:44pm
Its not rocket science but grade 5 mathematics. If 779 votes taken into account while calculating total number of vote polled to PLMN than obviously its typing error. If in 7879 votes were added in the final count than IK must come with documentary evidence to prove his point.
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May 21, 2014 09:55pm
How silly is this response. The only thing that needs to be checked are the numbers and that is the only MISTAKE?. Haven't you heard that you can fool some of the people some of the time?.
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May 21, 2014 09:56pm
Whole of the election is a "typing mistake"? Any where you recount and you get 60% bogus votes. The only mistake by PTI is that they only ask for rechecking in Punjab where as Sindh and specially Karachi is no different than what happened in Punjab. A totally predecided and engineered election where everything was predecided. I am sure even KPK is awarded to PTI just as Sindh to PPP and Punjab to Sharifs. The million dollar question is, why should we oppose martial law when the alternative is what we have got now through elections.
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May 21, 2014 09:59pm
Even this statement by the election commision is predecided and dictated by the rulers. They made up the explanation of it after listening to imran repeating it everywhere. It was no mistake but one of the ways they used to alter results.
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May 21, 2014 10:48pm
HOW MANY WERE DECLARED WINNERS BY JUST STROKE OF A PEN???
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May 21, 2014 10:55pm
Wake up to the reality! In Pakistan, Govt is not selected by people who vote, but by those who count the votes.
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May 21, 2014 11:37pm
In 3 days ECP decided to open NA 68 allegations, and concluded it was typo. reminds me of dogar courts where all matters related to Mush were dispensed off within hours.
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May 21, 2014 11:37pm
What Imran Khan has been saying about the elections......is right.
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May 22, 2014 04:12am
We need mid-term elections so that real democracy can be installed!
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May 22, 2014 06:09am
What a shame democracy. It would be much better to call it "DEMOCRAZY"
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May 22, 2014 10:22am
@Nuur Hasan: Time to charge NS for conspiracy and corruption of the Constitutional protocol...probably a dozen other charges after closer scrutiny. What say you/PTI ?
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May 22, 2014 05:46pm
There are question on this typing mistake.. Remember typing mistake in words can be ignored but in words cannot be ignored because it changes the whole picture. Further it was not clarified by The Secretary ECP that whether were compiled first or the summary was typed first. More ofetnty this summary is typed first and the results are announced as per this summary. Furthermore what ever the case may be it has hurt the voters. If voters not satisfied over these elections then the next election will be of no importance.
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