ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) won a closely contested by-poll for a National Assembly constituency on Thursday, according to unofficial results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), after the by-election was marred by violence that claimed one person’s life.
The by-election was held in Karachi’s NA-240 constituency after the death of Iqbal Muhammad Ali, a National Assembly member of the MQM-P, in April.
However, skirmishes between rival political parties during the polling saw one person getting killed and nine others injured, according to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC).
The MQM-P had managed to win the constituency in the 2018 general elections by a huge lead. This time, however, the party’s candidate Muhammad Abu Bakar won the by-election by a razor-thin majority in an election that saw a low voter turnout.
The MQM-P secured the most number of votes, 10,683 while the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidate Shahzada Shahbaz came in second, polling 10,618 votes.
The TLP, however, rejected the results and demanded a recount of the votes. “We are going for a recount and will guard our votes at every forum,” TLP chief Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi said at a news conference.
Rizvi alleged that his candidate’s votes were rejected in areas of the NA-240 constituency where the TLP held sway over voters. “In one polling station, 74 votes were rejected,” the TLP leader said.
He alleged that ballot boxes were taken away in three polling stations, criticizing the ECP for rejecting the TLP’s request to hold polling on a holiday.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had taken notice of the violence on Thursday, warning “strict action” will be taken against the culprits.
“We cannot allow anybody to disrupt the peaceful polling process,” Shah said.
