PPP dismayed over ECP claim

Islamabad: Secretary General Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Farhatullah Babar on Wednesday said the PPP was dismayed over the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) claims about the

2018 polls.

“The Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians is surprised and dismayed over the insistence of the Election

Commission of Pakistan that all data pertaining to Form-45 containing the results of vote count of the 2018

polls was uploaded on its website and described it as twisting facts unbecoming of a constitutional body like

the ECP,” he said in a statement.

“Form-45 containing vote count results was a basic document of vote count. It is mandatory that it is also

signed by the polling agents of candidates contesting elections. An unsigned Form-45 has no legal value. This

is what the Chairman PPP Mr Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been saying all along.

“PPPP’s election Cell headed by Senator Taj Haider has complete data of Form 45 and other election related

forms painstakingly prepared byFAFEN (Free and Fair Elections Network) pertaining to all the 78,467 polling

stations for National Assembly in the country.

“95% Form-45 (numbering 74,302) do not bear signatures of polling agents. Only sixty five Forms 45 bear the

signatures of polling agents of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians.

“The ECP sometime back responding to it had asserted that polling agents of losing candidates left the polling

stations on their own and that is why the forms bore no signatures.

“Polling agents of most candidates were driven out of the polling station no doubt as the ECP was helpless.

Even if the presiding officers were unable to record that polling agents had been driven out they should have

at least recorded, as required by law, that polling agents had left on their own. Moreover the ECP should at

least have been able to produce Form-45 duly signed by the polling agents of winning candidates who should

have been eager to sign their victory certificates. None of it was done for reasons not known.

“Some figures will help illustrate it further. In Baluchistan not one out of 2,427 Form-45 were found signed

by a polling agents, in Sindh only 74 out of 17, 493 and in Punjab only 27 out of 43,971 Form-45 have been

found signed by PML (N) polling agents and 39 by the polling agents of PTI candidates.

“In Khyber Pakhtun Khawa only 24 Forms 45 out of a total of 13,790 were found signed by polling agents of

PTI, 13 of PML (N) and 18 by the polling agents of PPP.

“In the two constituencies NA 246 and NA 200 where Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was a candidate none of

Form-45 is signed by the polling agent.

“No unsigned form-45 can be regarded as document authenticating election results. ECP insistence on

flaunting unsigned Form-45 as proof of authenticity of vote count passes comprehension and only raises

further questions,” he concluded.