GUJRAT: The NA-75 re-election results show entirely different picture in 20 polling stations whose presiding officers had disappeared and did not remain in touch with the returning officer for 14 hours on Feb 19 by-poll.

The PTI had claimed victory from these stations with a huge margin which, according to the PML-N, changed the result at the eleventh hour and declared Malhi as the winner.

The Election Commission later withheld their results after the POs went missing along with ballots. The results the POs later submitted to the returning officer were entirely different from the Form-45 results submitted by PML-N polling agents.

On the re-election day, PML-N’s Nosheen Iftikhar won from seven polling stations while the PTI’s Ali Asjad Malhi from 13 stations but with a thin margin -- his total lead from the 20 stations was just 921 votes whereas his victory margin (from these stations) on Feb 19 was in thousands.

As per the result of these 20 polling stations, Mr Malhi bagged 6,890 votes whereas Ms Iftikhar secured 5969 votes. The polling stations identity numbers are -- 2, 3, 6,7,8,9,11,22,23,24,26,45, 47,49,50,51,90,91,92 and 140.Meanwhile, the returning officer on Sunday sent the consolidated results to the Election Commission of Pakistan for the issuance of official results.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2021