Re-election in NA-250 within 10 days: ECP

Elections will be held within 10 days at NA-38 Kurram Agency where polls got cancelled, and re-election at 43 polling stations of the NA-250 Karachi will take place within 10 days, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed said on Sunday.

He congratulated the nation on completing the first step of conducting free and fair elections and went on to explain the various stages of the election process.

Stage 1: Announcement of result

“The whole process, of consolidating the results, is being done according to Section 39 of the Constitution Representation of Public Act,” he said.

“The returning officers are formulating the results as we speak, they will then place the ballot papers in a sealed plastic bag which will be opened in front of the candidates,” Ahmed explained.

“The bag will be opened in front of the candidates and postal ballots will be added.”

Postal ballots will be added at this stage and a form 16 will come along with plastic bag and consolidated results will be notified in the election commission gazette.

“We can see the media announcing results,” he said, “but the official results will be notified by the ECP.”

In all, the election commission has officially received 44 results of National Assembly seats and 122 provincial seats.

Stage 2

“Be assured that the results cannot be changed [as we have seen in past],” he assured.

“No one can tamper with the results because if they do, we will know the seals are broken.”

After results are announced, independent candidates will have to join any political party within three days.

Also people who win from multiple seats will have to choose one and then by elections will be held.

Reserved seats quota will then be worked out by the ECP at this stage.

Stage 3

The newly elected government will meet within 21 days, from the date of announcement of official result, the National Assembly will meet and choose the prime minister and speakers.

Stage 4

By elections will be held on seats which were left empty due to death of any candidate and by the candidates who had won multiple seats.

“The by-election will be held around June,” ECP secretary said.

Ahmed said the delay in the announcement of the results was due to the transparent process and legal procedure adopted by the Election Commission.

He said several reservations had been expressed in the media and by the people about the delay in the results due to the past practices and assured that this time the process was so designed that no tampering was possible.

In a separate press release, the ECP congratulated the people of Pakistan on historic elections.

It said the elections throughout the country were largely free and fair and passed without any major incident. It said the exception to this was obviously in Karachi where the commission was compelled to stop polling at 43 polling stations in NA-250. The commission would like to clarify that the presiding officers and polling staff in NA-250 were directed to report to their respective polling stations along with all election material one night before the elections.

However, upon appointment, they were threatened and the election material was stolen by criminal elements. Substitutes appointed by the DRO were also threatened and therefore refused to perform election duty.