News Analysis |
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate, Khawaja Saad Rafique challenged the vote count unraveled at the hands of Election Commission of Pakistan after losing to PTI’s leader Imran Khan in the constituency of NA-131 in General Elections 2018.
On 27th July, just two days succeeding the G.E 2018 of Pakistan, distraught emotions and signs of aggression was faced by Khawaja Saad Rafique, member of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N). Unofficial announcements resulted in Saad Rafique receiving 83,633 votes against Imran Khan who held possession of 84,313 votes.
Deeming these results as unacceptable, the former Federal Railway Minister challenged the vote count of the Election Commission of Pakistan. As of now, a report of complaint has already been filed to the returning officer alleging that the presiding officer deliberately rejected hundreds of votes. He has demanded a recount adding that until the votes are recounted, the results from the constituency should not be announced.
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As PTI supporters indulged in celebration, the outgoing PML-N rejected the results citing “outright rigging” and accusing officials of preventing its representatives from overseeing the count. Saad Rafique had never faced a defeat in any of his contested elections since 1997 until now.
Interestingly, despite contesting from the Metropolitan multiple times in 1997, 2002 and 2013, Imran Khan had never won until G.E 2018. Saad Rafique’s disapproval of the ECP has been witnessed on multiple occasions before as well. He had indicated his distaste and lack of faith in the ECP prior to the announcements of the unofficial results by expressing his impatience on twitter,
پچھلے دس گھنٹے سے این اے 131 کا رزلٹ حاصل کرنے کے لئے خجل خوار ھو رھے ھیں
الیکشن کمشن نے نتائج دو بجے شب تک دینے کا اعلان کیا تھا
غیر معمولی تاخیر کا ذمہ دار کون ھے ؟؟؟؟
— Khawaja Saad Rafique (@KhSaad_Rafique) July 26, 2018
Khawaja Saad Rafique had been sensing a probable loss due to the delimitation process affecting his polling results negatively. His old constituency was split into 3 constituencies which divided his vote bank. He held the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) directly responsible for doing favoritism towards Imran Khan and adding value to PTI’s vote bank through the newly formed constituency of NA-131 in Lahore, GVS earlier reported.