Pakistan: PPP emerges victorious again in NA-249 by-poll recount

Karachi [Pakistan], May 9 : The recounting of votes for the NA-249 by-election has resulted in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) emerging the victor once again with a greater margin than in the initial results.
After a recount of votes at 276 elections, PPP candidate Abdul Qadir Mandokhel got 15,656 votes, whereas Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Miftah Ismail secured 14,747, meaning a victory margin of 909 votes, as opposed to 683 votes in the results announced earlier, reported Geo News.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) earlier this week accepted PML-N leader Miftah Ismail's application for recounting of votes in the NA-249 Karachi by-election.
The low margin of votes had prompted Ismail to petition the ECP to hold a recount. The Commission issued a stay order to withhold results of the by-poll.
The vote recount hit a snag when candidates objected to unsealed bags that were brought for a recount and came out of the District Returning Officer's office in protest, Geo News reported.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had filed a petition seeking annulment of the by-election in the NA-249 constituency due to allegations of rigging.
However, ECP officials decreed that "the recount process will be completed as per the order".
Mandokhail has emerged victorious in the NA-249 by-election in Karachi by a margin of 16,156 votes, according to provisional results.
The NA-249 seat had fallen vacant after PTI's Faisal Vawda resigned over his dual nationality controversy and became a senator.
The election came after PTI's candidate Ali Asjad Malhi lost the hotly-contested NA-75 seat in Daska to PML-N's Nosheen Iftikhar earlier this month.