BADIN: On the order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the provincial election commissioner (Sindh) has asked the returning officers of the NA-230 Badin-II and PS-73 Badin-IV constituencies to resume and complete the recounting of votes.

The recounting was started on Saturday and continued the next day but had to be stopped following objections raised by Dr Fehmida Mirza, who has been declared winner of the NA-230 seat in the unofficial results.

Contesting on a Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) ticket, Dr Mirza had bagged 96,875 votes to defeat her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rival Haji Rasool Bux Chandio by a margin of 860 votes. Mr Chandio polled 96,105 votes.

As the votes polled at 13 polling stations were counted till Sunday afternoon at the judicial complex in Badin, the process had to be stopped abruptly when Dr Mirza raised objections and her representatives joined her protest. They walked out of the court prompting the returning officer concerned to seek opinion of the higher election officials.

It was reported on Sunday that the RO of NA-230 complained of Dr Mirza’s attitude to the higher authorities in writing and sought further course of action.

On Monday, the provincial election commissioner wrote to the Sindh chief secretary, the ROs of NA-230 and PS-73 and other officials concerned telling them that the recounting be resumed and completed.

“I am directed to refer to letters of ROs bearing No. 773 of 2018 dated 29-07-2018 and RO No. E 2018/393 of 2018 and to convey the direction of Hon’ble Election Commission of Pakistan that process of recounting in NA-230 Badin-II & PS 73 Badin IV shall be completed by concerned Returning Officers and till completion of recount, consolidated result on Form-48 & Form-49 shall not be announced”, the letter signed by joint provincial election commissioner M. Rasheed Bhatti read.

Subsequently, Atif Rahim, the deputy director of ECP at Islamabad, through a letter directed RO Mangha Ram to resume the stalled process of recounting of votes polled in PS 73-Badin IV.

In this constituency, Taj Mohammad Mallah of Pakistan Peoples Party was declared winner against Dr Fehmida Mirza with a 280-vote lead. He had polled 37,645 votes against Dr Mirza’s 37,364 votes.

The recounting was also stalled on Sunday due to Dr Mirza’s attitude.

In her statement issued here on Monday, Fehmida Mirza complained of tampering and manipulation to breach sanctity of ballots. “It, however, remains a question for inquiry where and when these breaches and tampering took place,” the statement said, adding that during the recounting, it was found that whole packets containing her votes were missing from the relevant bags.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2018