Abid Sher Ali loses 701 more votes after recounting in NA-108

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Abid Sher Ali may have been ruing his clamour for vote recount in NA-108, as another counting of votes deprived him of more 701 votes, hence retaining PTI candidate Farrukh Habib as the winner.

PTI’s Farrukh Habib had received 112,740 votes while Abid Sher Ali managed to secure 111,529 votes, defeating his opponents with the close margin of 1211 votes.

Following announcement of the preliminary results, Abid Sher Ali had demanded the returning officer to recount votes.

Requests for recounting in NA-108 Faisalabad-VIII as well in NA-129 Lahore-V and NA-131 Lahore-VII from other candidates were later accepted by the returning officers of the respective constituencies.

Now after completion of the recounting process, Abid Sher Ali has lost around 701 votes while PTI candidate has been retained winner with almost similar number of votes.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has denied all claims of rigging, claiming that Form 45s were provided to agents of all political parties. It has asked that political parties to approach the commission with formal complaints, which it has assured will be addressed.

The ECP has attributed the delay in announcement of results to a technical fault in Result Transmission System (RTS) — a software used to relay results from presiding officer to the ECP. The RTS crashed on the evening soon after the results were being transmitted, resulting in inordinate delays in the counting process.