‘ECP and courts urged to complete election related cases on priority basis’

Islamabad:PATTAN-Coalition38 has urged the ECP and courts to complete the election related cases on priority basis as it has been causing severe damage to governance and development.

In this regard, PATTAN-Coalition38 conducted a detailed audit of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) National Assembly constituencies. The announced winners had obtained less votes than the runner ups, claimed the audit.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Coalition said that interference in the February 8 general elections to achieve 'positive' results continues to haunt the governance and political stability and society and likely to make the country's development vulnerable in coming years. It said that therefore, measuring degree of the rigging was essentially vital to bring stability.

For NA 46 Islamabad-1, the audit was able to verify the results of 298 out of 342 polling stations which represents 87% of the constituency's total polling station results. As per audited tabulated results, PTI backed independent candidate Amir Masood received 75,608 votes, followed by PML-N's Anjum Aqeel Khan with 38,607 votes. However, as per form 47 issued on ECP website, PML-N candidate was declared the winner with 81,958 votes against 44,317 for the PTI backed candidate. This is a reversal from the results verified by the audit of over 76,000 votes. Further, on review of the Form-45s collected against the ECP uploaded Form-45s on their website, the research found more than 200 polling stations out of 342 where there were differences in the two documents. In most cases, the votes received by the PTI candidate were shown in the PML-N candidate's column on ECP's documents and vice versa.

For NA 47 Islamabad-2, the audit verified the results of 379 out of 387 polling stations which represents 97% of the constituency's total polling station results. As per tabulation of results, PTI backed independent candidate Shoaib Shaheen received 101,061 votes, followed by PML-N's Tariq Fazal Chaudhry with 49,528 votes. However, as per form 47 issued on ECP website, PML-N candidate was declared the winner with 101,397 votes against 86,794 for the PTI backed candidate. This is a reversal from the results verified by us of over 66,000 votes. Further, on review of the Form-45s collected against the ECP uploaded Form-45s on their website, the audit found at least 198 polling stations out of 387 where there were differences in the two documents. For example, at polling station 384, the PML-N candidate's vote total was changed from 181 to 1,181, an increase of a 1,000 votes.

For NA 48 Islamabad-3, the audit report verified the results of 234 out of 261 polling stations which represents 90% of the constituency's total polling station results. As per results, PTI backed independent candidate Syed Muhammad Ali Bukhari received 70,318 votes, followed by independent (later joined PMLN) Raja Khurram Shahzad with 26,874 votes. However, as per form 47 issued on ECP website, the independent candidate was declared the winner with 69,699 votes against 59,851 for the PTI backed candidate. This is a reversal from the results verified by the audit of over 53,000 votes. Further, on review of the Form-45s collected against the ECP uploaded Form-45s on their website, the audit found at least 91 polling stations out of 261 where there were differences in the two documents. For example, at polling station 94, the PML-N candidate's vote total was changed from 92 to 1,092, an increase of a 1,000 votes. As such, we found clear evidence of manipulation of results in this constituency in favour of PML-N.

The audit process involved the collection of the polling station level results (Form-45), which are completed inside every polling station on election day, from candidates, tabulating the results of all available Form-45s on each of the three constituencies to determine the share of votes received by the candidates, comparing totals of polling station results with Form-47 issued by ECP on its website, which is a tabulation of the polling station results and comparing the results of the Form-45s, which were collected by us in the days following the February 8 general election, with the Form-45s uploaded on the google drive of Election Commission of Pakistan on 6th March 2024 to highlight any anomalies or differences on specific polling stations.