Category: Media Coverage

ISLAMABAD: All winning candidates in the recent general elections have been asked to submit their election expenses to the Returning Officers (RO) by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by August 4 for the issuance of official notification, a local media outlet reported. “The ECP had invited the attention of returned candidates to the provision of 98 of the Election Act 2017 which inter alia provides that every returned candidate shall, within 10 days from the poll of an election, submit a return of the election expenses under section 134 and the commission shall not notify in the official gazette the result of a returned candidate who fails to submit his/her return of election expenses,” read the notification released on Monday. All successful candidates must present their expenses within 10…

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan ordered recounting of votes in more than 70 constituencies of national and provincial assemblies during the past three days, a senior ECP official told Dawn on Monday. He said that under the law, a recount could be allowed only before consolidation of results, adding that the orders had been issued only in the cases where consolidation process had either not started or not completed. He said that in the rest of the constituencies, the consolidation process had been completed and Form-49 tabulating consolidated results, including ballot papers, had been received by the commission. The official said that under Section 95 (6) of the Elections Act, the commission might, before conclusion of the consolidation proceedings, for reasons to be recorded, direct the returning officer to…

ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), led by PM-in-waiting Imran Khan, has secured around four million more votes than its arch-rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the elections to the National Assembly, as the PTI’s vote bank has registered an over twofold increase when compared to the results of 2013 elections. As the PTI makes efforts to form a government in the Centre for the first time, the statistics released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) show that its votes increased from 7.67 million in 2013 to 16.85 million in 2018. While the PTI rose from the second to the top position in the chart of party-wise vote bank, the case with PML-N was reverse — as it lost around two million votes in this election. The PML-N had secured…

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will upload over 83,000 Forms-45 on its website by Tuesday for which it has asked its officials to collect documents from across Pakistan. A senior official at the Election Commission told The News that they expected to ‘put on display’ the Form-45 on the commission’s website by Tuesday. This is being seen as a bid to put at rest speculations about transparency of the electoral exercise. The Form-45, also called the statement of the count, is a document which contains candidate’s data as well as vote count. The returning officers and polling staff are supposed to stamp and thumbprint it for authenticity and record. Political parties alleged that their polling agents at polling stations were not provided with copies of Form-45 and alleged…

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan on Thursday claimed victory in the general elections, even as the parties that took on his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at the hustings pointed to the painfully slow counting of votes and said the polls had been rigged. In a 25-minute speech delivered some 22 hours after polling ended on Wednesday evening, Mr Khan said he was ready to facilitate any investigation into the charges of rigging. “First of all the election commission was not set up by the PTI, but by the PPP and PML-N jointly. And the caretaker governments were set up after due consultations,” he said. • Says he will facilitate poll rigging investigations • Unveils comprehensive reforms plan • Tells opponents to let bygones be bygones • Seeks better relations with India This week’s elections…

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is set to form its second consecutive government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on its own by securing a simple majority in the provincial assembly. The Imran Khan-led party had secured 34 provincial assembly seats in the 2013 elections before installing government with the support of Jamaat-i-Islami, Qaumi Watan Party, and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan, which was later merged with it. However, it won elections in 66 of the total 97 constituencies on July 25, 2018, and thus, being able to form the next government without the support of any other party. The religio-political alliance, MMA, is the runner-up in the elections by winning 10 provincial assembly seats. Wins 66 of total 97 provincial assembly seats The PTI candidates have also won 35 of the total 51 National…

Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after winning 119 National Assembly seats have emerged as major political party, however it requires 137 seats to form government with simple majority at centre. For this, PTI has decided to approach five political parties to form coalition government at centre, sources said and added that Imran Khan’s party has completed initial consultation over it. Sources confirmed that Imran Khan held consultative meeting with senior party leaders and decided to contact Independent candidates, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Awami Muslim League (AML) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P). The number of independent candidates in National Assembly is 15, GDA 2, AML 1, PML-Q 4, BAP 1 and MQM-P 8. Published in The News

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad has conceded the failure of the result transmission system (RTS), saying it did not work as expected. “It is a lesson that technologies should not be introduced before multiple tests. We will see how it can be improved,” he said at a press briefing here on Thursday. He, however, said the RTS had significance with regard to sharing of information, but it had no legal value. Secretary says announcement of results took 50 hours in 2008 and days in many constituencies in 2013 About delay in announcement of results, he recalled that the announcement of results took 50 hours in 2008 and it took days in many constituencies in 2013. He said 90 per cent of results had so…

PESHAWAR/SAHIWAL: In a historic first, women in some conservative parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab came out of their homes to cast their votes in the general election on Wednesday as candidates sought to fulfil the legal requirement of minimum 10 per cent women’s turnout to validate their result. In Balochistan, too, women came out in large numbers to vote despite terror attacks and repeated threats. Women in tribal areas and other conservative areas had been barred from voting in the past general elections, as the practice of keeping women from voting is a norm under verbal and written agreements bet­ween candidates and family elders in such areas. However, for the first time in the country’s electoral history, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) annulled the result of Dir Lower…

KARACHI: Counting has started across Pakistan after a daylong polling in the landmark parliamentary elections, marred by a deadly terrorist attack in Quetta, where 31 people were martyred in a suicide attack. Preliminary and unofficial results are expected to be out in an hour. Barring the suicide attack in Quetta, the polling process concluded peacefully in rest of the country amid heightened security. More than 350,000 troops were deployed to maintain law and order on the polling day. Around 105.95 million eligible voters were expected to exercise their right of franchise in the country’s eleventh general election. More two dozen parties were in the race but a close contest is expected between Imran Khan’s PTI and Shebaz Sharif-led PML-N in most constituencies. PPP is also expected to retain its seats…