ECP declares NA-75 by-polls null and void

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday ruled that a re-election be held in the entire NA-75 Daska constituency after suspicions that the results may have been falsified, dawn.com reported.

The ECP, while hearing an application by PML-N candidate Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, declared the by-poll held in the constituency on February 19 as null and void. A five-member commission, headed by the chief election commissioner, announced the decision and ordered that fresh elections be held in Daska on March 18.

The order was issued using the powers conferred on the ECP under Article 218 (3) of the Constitution and Article 19 (1) of the Election Act, 2017.

It noted that “on the day of the election, chaos was spread in the entire constituency”.

Reacting to the decision, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who was the most vocal in demands for a re-election in NA-75, said “the people of Daska have gotten back their right.”

Referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan, she wrote that the “fake sadiq and ameen (honest and righteous) has been issued the certificate of vote thief” through the ECP verdict.

“Vote thief Imran Khan also turned out to be a kidnapper,” she alleged.

 

In another tweet, Maryam said the echo of her father and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s narrative of “vote ko izzat do (honour the vote)” was being heard “throughout the country”.

“Thanks to the people of Daska who not only voted but only guarded their vote and handed over the vote thieves to the authorities after catching them red-handed.”

 

Maryam’s spokesperson Muhammad Zubair also spoke to the reporters and said that the government was “caught red-handed”, adding that the ruling party “adopted tactics that even the ECP was surprised”.