Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Dr Yasmin Rashid said on Monday that her party would not accept the results of the NA-120 by-election until the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) addressed its reservations over the validity of over 29,000 votes.
Rashid, who was fielded as the PTI's candidate in the NA-120 by-polls, told reporters in Lahore that the party would not allow the ECP to release the results ─ nor would it accept the results, if released ─ of the by-election until the commission or the National Database and Registration Authority accounted for 29,607 votes deemed by the party to be "unverified".
Nearly two weeks before the highly-contested by-election was held on Sunday, the ECP had revealed that Nadra was missing the biometric data of 29,607 voters in the constituency.
The votes of those whose data was not available, therefore, would have to be verified through the standard process before being verified by the biometric verification machines that the ECP had installed at 100 polling booths in 39 polling stations.
The ECP had provided assurance at the time that no voters would be excluded from the process due to the missing data.
"What is the value of these votes?" Rashid questioned. She asked that the votes be considered 'bogus' if they were not confirmed by authorities.
On Saturday, a day ahead of the by-poll, the ECP said it had made the list of those voters public upon the directions of the Lahore High Court.
The official results of the NA-120 by-election are yet to be released. However, unverified and unofficial results shared by local news media declared PML-N candidate Kulsoom Nawaz victorious.
The NA-120 seat fell vacant after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ─ Kulsoom's husband ─ was disqualified by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case.
