RO rejects Shehryar Afridi's plea for re-vote during Senate elections

ISLAMABAD: The Returning Officer (RO) supervising the Senate elections at the National Assembly has refused to entertain a plea from PTI MNA Shehryar Afridi to re-cast his vote after he made a mistake on his ballot paper, ARY NEWS reported.

“We have rejected a plea from Shehryar Afridi to recast his vote,” announced the returning officer after Shehryar Afridi requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to let him cast his vote for the Senate elections afresh after he mistakenly signed the ballot paper.

“It is submitted that I have been feeling unwell for the past few days and couldn’t attend the meetings of the party for preparations of elections,” he said in a letter to the ECP presiding officer.

Meanwhile, the PML-N MNA and Punjab president Rana Sanaullah claimed that two of the PTI lawmakers wasted their votes. “Votes from Shehryar Afridi and Zartaj Gul got wasted,” he said adding that the fight between the candidates in National Assembly, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Abdul Hafeez Shaikh- is on 12 votes.

The PML-N leader said that the government has the support of 180 votes while the opposition is backed by 160 MNAs.

SAPM on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill said that for keeping the record straight, he wanted to inform that the vote cast by Zartaj Gul has no issues. “She has cast her vote in a proper manner,” he said.