BADIN: Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidate Dr Fehmida Mirza was unofficially declared winner after recounting of NA-230 Badin-II votes conducted on an application filed by her Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rival Haji Rasool Bux Chandio.
According to the recounting results, Dr Mirza, a former speaker of the National Assembly, polled 95,064 and Mr Chandio 93,999 votes.
The original counting had showed that Dr Mirza bagged 96,875 votes to defeat Mr Chandio, who polled 96,015 votes, by a margin of 860 votes. The recounting increased Dr Mirza’s victory margin to 1,065 although her total votes decreased by 1,811 votes. Mr Chandio’s vote count also slashed by 2,016 votes.
During the recounting process, Dr Mirza raised several objections including ECP’s direct intervention into the matter. She also feared election staff’s connivance with her rival candidate and certain leaders of his party to change her unofficially declared victory to defeat.
She moved the high court to seek reversal of the returning officer’s decision regarding the recounting and notification of the original consolidated results. However, the court did not favour her petition.
After notification of the NA-230 results, Dr Fehmida Mirza would become the first lawmaker to have registered five consecutive victories in general elections since entering the electoral process in 1996, when she became a member of the National Assembly.
Dr Mirza also contested for a Sindh Assembly seat, PS-73 Badin-IV, as well and lost to PPP’s Taj Mohammed Mallah by a margin of 910 votes. Recounting of votes was carried out on her application but the results remained unchanged though with a difference of figures.
The results of the PS-73 has been withheld after the recount.
According to Barrister Hasnain Mirza (the elder son of Fehmida Mirza and MPA-elect from PS-72) one bag of ballot papers is unaccounted for.Fayyaz Abro, the lawyer of PPP candidate Taj Mohammad Mallah, was also quoted as revealing that “a packet of ballots containing the votes polled at polling station No. 28 in Udheja locality has mysteriously gone missing”. According to him, the bag contained 396 votes -- 204 polled for Mr Mallah and 192 for Dr Mirza.
Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018