RAWALPINDI: It was revealed on Wednesday that the returning officer (RO) of the constituency had denied PTI candidate Shabbir Awan’s request for a recount of votes in Rawalpindi’s PP-7.
It is important to note that Raja Sagheer Ahmed, a candidate for the PML-N, won the district’s by-election on July 17 by a slim margin of 49 votes.
According to the unofficial results for PP-7, Ahmed of the PML-N won the seat with 68,906 votes, while Awan of the PTI received 68,857 votes.
The PTI candidate opted to contest the results and submitted an appeal for a recount of ballots in the constituency after losing by a razor-thin margin.
Sources claim that the RO stated in a reserved decision that all poll workers were present when the results were announced and that there would be no vote recount.
According to the sources’ additional citation of the RO, the PTI candidate was unable to present any convincing arguments that would have justified a vote recount in the constituency.
“Therefore, PTI’s plea was rejected for a lack of evidence. According to the sources, a verdict said that only invalid ballots would be reviewed again.
PTI prevailed in at least 15 of the 20 constituencies during the July 17 by-elections in Punjab, while PML-N only won four. A third seat was won by an independent candidate.
