HARIPUR: The vote count in the NA-18 Haripur by-election is still going on as the Returning Officer (RO) office has received results from 345 polling stations, based on the unofficial results, on Sunday.
The PML-N candidate, Babar Nawaz Khan, is currently leading with 97,389 votes, according to the information available so far. An independent candidate, Sheharnaz Umar Ayub, who has been unofficially supported by the PTI supporters, is currently ranked second with 68,534 votes.
According to the RO office, the work of entering Form-45 results into the RMS (Result Management System) is still in progress. The final consolidated results will be released after the completion of data entry and verification.
NA-18 Haripur seat was left vacant earlier which resulted in a competitive by-election between major political contenders. The candidates’ supporters are checking the results very closely as the count is ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced a major lead in the by-election of NA-18 Haripur district. However, Omar Ayub Khan, a party leader, accused the staff of the Returning Officer (RO) of trying to manipulate the results.
The PTI claims that the data in Form-45 from 519 out of 602 polling stations reveals that the candidate of their party is leading by a margin of around 25,000 votes. According to Omar Ayub Khan, the numbers from official Form-45 documents demonstrate unambiguously a huge PTI lead.
In his X (previously Twitter) post, Omar Ayub accused the RO office staff of “intentionally entering wrong figures in their computer system to change the final result.” He described the situation as “very alarming” and urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take action without delay.
Ayub insisted that the ECP should guarantee the transparency of the election through physically verifying each record along with the original Form-45 documents.
Furthermore, he pointed out that if there were any differences, they should be understood and sorted out before the results are consolidated.
Moreover, he reiterated PTI’s position that “the people’s will must be safeguarded at any cost” and the party “will not go back a step” until the correct vote tally is recognized.
The ECP has not responded to the allegations so far.
ALSO READ: PML-N leads in all six constituencies of National Assembly
