Jacobabad: NA-196 vote recount shows PTI's soomro in lead

JACOBABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) resumed Thursday recounting of votes in Jacobabad’s NA-196 constituency, ARY News reported.

The recounting of votes cast at the 394 polling stations of the National Assembly constituency has been completed as of Jan 12, sources relayed.

During the recounting of ballots, the sources said Federal Minister for Privatization Muhammad Mian Soomro bagged 72,630 votes as against 75,256 he had received as per provisional results. 2,626 votes were rejected. Ballots cast at 25 polling stations are missing, they said.

The number of votes received by PPP candidate Aijaz Jakhrani have reduced from previous 65317 to 63,377 with 1,940 votes rejected, the sources said, quoting unofficial results. The ballots polled in favour of Jakhrani at 24 polling stations are missing, they added.

The process of the recount of votes cast at 78 polling stations is underway, the sources said.

On Jan 10, an election tribunal had dismissed a petition filed by Muhammad Mian Soomro seeking to stop recounting of votes in Jacobabad’s NA-196 constituency.

The tribunal directed the PTI MNA to approach the Supreme Court against its verdict for recounting of votes in NA-196. The presiding officer of the tribunal expressed displeasure over the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for failing to complete the vote recount within a month.

The tribunal directed the ECP to implement its decision within a week and furnish a compliance report.