Pakistan
ECP orders re-polling in Daska NA-75
Islamabad: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday has ordered fresh polls for Daska NA-75 constituency on March 18, following a detailed look into the final report on the incident.
A five-member bench headed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was set to hear the case regarding controversial Daska by-election.
During the proceedings, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawyer has said it’s a matter of the entire constituency and that Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Zulfiqar Virk has yet to be removed from his post.
In the verdict, CEC said that there was mismanagement, harassment and firing in NA-75.
Moreover, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) changed its lawyer and hired Barrister Ali Zafar for the case.
Previously, the committee had conducted a detailed investigation of 17 out of 20 missing presiding officers, while the other three have not appeared before the committee so far. All 17 presiding officers failed to satisfy the inquiry committee on their disappearance soon after the end of the election process.
It must be noted that ECP earlier had halted final results of NA-75 as some of the presiding officers were allegedly kidnapped in order to manipulate the election results.
On the other hand, both the ruling party and PML-N have claimed their victories and have been blaming each other for stealing the votes.
After the prime minister’s tweet, stating that he would request the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate to ask for a re-poll in 20 polling stations and following his post, a number of PTI leaders also endorsed the same idea.