VIRAL: 'Dead man' turns up to vote in Punjab by-polls

LAHORE: A ‘dead man’ turned up to case vote in the ongoing by-elections on 20 constituencies of the Punjab Assembly, ARY News reported on Sunday.

According to details, a man – identified as Muhammad Younus and a resident of 167 Township – turned up to cast his vote in PP-167.

However, the polling staff stopped him from casting his vote, stating that he had been declared deceased by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The ‘deceased’ man countered the ECP officials by telling them that he was alive and well standing before them. However, the officials of the electoral watchdog turned him away.

Talking to ARY News, Muhammad Younus said that he had gone to other polling stations as well to try and cast his vote but everywhere he was stopped from voting.

Younus, however, said that he want to cast his vote for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) but ECP’s negligence has restricted him.

Meanwhile, counting of votes is underway after polling in 20 constituencies of Punjab, which started at 8am today, has come to an end amid reports of clashes and arrests.

The 20 Punjab Assembly seats were vacated after the PTI MPAs voted for Hamza Shahbaz in the Chief Minister (CM) elections. The results of the by-polls would be essential for the CM vote count, ordered by the Supreme Court (SC), in the Punjab Assembly in July 2022.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) needs to win a total of nine seats in today’s by-elections to gain a majority to elect their chief minister in the biggest province of the country.