BUNER, Feb 11: Chief Election Commissioner Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq on Wednesday ordered recounting of votes cast during re-polling on 11 polling stations of NA-28 Buner constituency after a controversy was emerged about the results furnished by the presiding officers.
The election commissioner issued the directives after District Returning Officer Anwar Ali Khan said that the results furnished by the presiding officers were not in according with the actually polled votes. He also sent a latter to the election commissioner requesting that he might be guided on the subject so as to declare the present re-polling null and void.
Buner Assistant Election Commissioner Mohammad Nadeem Khan confirmed that chief election commissioner had directed the returning officer to recount the votes cast in the re-polling, count the postal ballots and consolidate the results on Thursday.
The unofficial results compiled by the returning officer Tuesday night, which was withheld and not announced, showed that ANP candidate Istiqbal Khan had received 2,943 votes against 665 votes of his rival candidate Bakht Jehan Khan of Jamaat-i-Islami in the said 11 polling stations. Mr Istiqbal claimed that he had won the election with a margin of 614 votes.
However, the JI candidate, who had earlier lead of 1,664 votes when polling was held in rest of the polling stations on Dec 28, disputed the results stating that according to the results given to him by the presiding officers he had a lead of 36 votes and thus he had won with a margin of 1,700 votes.
Polling on the said 11 polling stations of Shalbandi and Amnawar areas was postponed during the by-polls on Dec 28 after a suicide car bombing ripped through some buildings near a polling station killing 43 persons.
The by-election on NA-28 was announced after the death of ANP MNA Advocate Abdul Mateen Khan.
The JI opposed the decision of the CEC and demanded that its candidate should be declared victorious in the polls.
It was learnt that the DRO in his letter to the chief election commissioner stated that two different results were furnished, one was handed over to the contesting candidate Mr Bukht Jehan and the other submitted to the returning officer.