NA-240 Karachi by-polls: TLP's plea for vote recount rejected

KARACHI: Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) request for recounting of votes in NA-240 was rejected by the returning officer (RO) of the constituency, ARY News reported on Friday.

TLP’s candidate Shahzada Shahbaz had submitted a request for a recount in the constituency to the returning officer saying that they were not satisfied with the result and wanted to exercise their legal right of a recount.

However, the returning officer of the constituency has rejected the plea after re-checking the rejected votes. A notification in this regard has also been issued.

“The contents of the application are ambiguous as there was no malfunctioning of RTS system. After extensive inquiry it was found that there was no interference with the sensitive material at polling stations 53, 165 and 166,” the notification stated.

It is pertinent to mention here that TLP had submitted a request for a recount in the constituency to the returning officer. “The RTS stopped working for 33 minutes during the result compilation process,” the party further alleged.

Moreover, the top leader of the party Saad Rizvi alleged that ballot boxes were snatched from three polling stations and they have evidence of it. “Rigging complaints have also been reported from multiple polling stations,” he said.

MQM retains NA-240 Karachi seat

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) successfully retained the National Assembly seat from NA-240 Karachi, following a nail-biting competition from TLP in the by-election marred by violence, low voter turnout and allegations of rigging.

The seat fell vacant after the party’s MNA Iqbal Ali Muhammad Khan died due to natural causes.

According to unofficial results, the MQM-P candidate Muhammad Abu Bakr bagged 10,683 votes, followed by TLP’s Shahzada Shahbaz who secured 10,618 votes.