Dead man 'casts two votes' during Khanewal by-election

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill Thursday shared how a dead man voted during the by-election in Khanewal and said that this was the secret that forced PML-N to oppose use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), ARY NEWS reported.

While sharing a screenshot of an ARY NEWS report from his Twitter handle, revealing how a man named Malik Jamil voted at two polling stations, 63 and 64, despite being dead.

“This is the secret owing to which PML-N hates the use of electronic voting machines,” he said blaming the party for winning elections through casting ballots of dead people at multiple polling stations. “This is their old way to rig polls and they want to continue it,” Shahbaz Gill said.

یہ ہے وہ راز جس کی وجہ سے ای وی ایم مشین سے نفرت ہے ن لیگ کو۔ یہ مرے ہوئے لوگوں کے دو دو ووٹ ڈال کر الیکشن جیتتے آئے ہیں۔ یہ ان کا پرانا وطیرہ ہے اور یہ اسے جاری رکھنا چاہتے ہیں۔ pic.twitter.com/mt7Wg1qO49

— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) December 16, 2021

Polling for the by-election for Punjab Assembly seat PP-206 Khanewal has ended and results have started to pour in. The polling started at 8 am and continued till 5 pm without any break.

According to unofficial and unconfirmed results of 20 polling stations, PML-N’s Rana Saleem was in the lead with 4740 votes against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Noreen Nishat Daha who acquired 3537 votes.

A total of 183 polling stations and 512 polling booths were set up for 230,698 registered voters of the constituency.

As many as 13 candidates are in the run for the provincial assembly seat. However, a tough contest is expected between the PML-N’s Rana Muhammad Saleem, who had contested the 2018 general election on a PTI ticket, and the PTI’s Noreen Nishat Daha, the widow of former PMLN candidate and MPA Nishat Daha.

The provincial assembly seat fell vacant upon the death of Nishat Daha in October this year. Daha had defeated Rana Saleem by a margin of 3,546 votes in 2018.