Peshawar mayoral election: PTI to request vote recount

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to approach the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for a vote recount on Peshawar mayoral seat, ARY News reported on Monday.

This was announced by the PTI Peshawar’s spokesperson.

In a statement, the spokesperson said the number of rejected votes of PTI for the Peshawar mayoral election was higher than the winning margin of the JUI-F candidate.

“The JUI-F candidate should be held accountable for distributing Rs200mn for Peshawar mayoral election,” he alleged while demanding ECP to launch probe.

He further claimed that polling agents were also offered money during LG polls and the ruling PTI was investigating the matter.

It is pertinent to mention here that the ruling PTI suffered a major setback on Monday after the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) candidate won the seat for Peshawar mayor in the first phase of local government elections held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to unofficial and unverified results.

According to the unofficial results, JUI-F’s Zubair Ali won with a margin of around 11,500 votes after securing 62,388. PTI’s Rizwan Bangash received 50,669 votes and PPP’s Zarak Arbab got 45,000 votes.

According to the unofficial and unconfirmed results of 31 Tehsil chairman seats, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) has overtaken Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf by securing 12 chairman seats. KP’s ruling party has won 10 seats of chairmen so far.

Independent candidates have got five seats. Awami National Party four, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz two and Jamaat Islami have managed to grab a single chairman seat.

JUI-F won the Kohat Mayorship seat, while ANP won the Mayor seat from Mardan.