Poll Records
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recently come under scrutiny for modifying the results of at least 41 national and provincial assembly constituencies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by updating the Form 45s stored on its official Google Drive.
This move has raised significant questions about the transparency of the electoral process, especially given the ongoing disputes currently before election tribunals for adjudication.
Form 45 is a crucial record in the electoral process, containing key information about polling stations and the number of ballots cast, and is signed by a presiding officer at each polling station. Form 47, on the other hand, is the provisional consolidated result prepared by the respective returning officer.
The ECP’s modifications were seemingly prompted by a report from the NGO Pattan-Coalition 38, which claimed that forms for over a dozen constituencies were missing from the ECP website.
This report, released on July 3, was dismissed by the Election Commission as ‘baseless’. However, independent scrutiny by Dawn revealed that the ECP’s claim was incorrect.
On July 3, data available on the ECP’s Google Drive, used to upload information related to the 2024 general elections, showed that Form 45s for 14 provincial assembly constituencies in Lahore were missing, replaced by Form 46s.
Additionally, around 50 Form 45s were missing for the NA-125 constituency in Lahore. These omissions were addressed on July 4 and 5, according to modification dates visible on Google Drive, when the ECP added the remaining forms for NA-125 and the 14 other provincial assembly constituencies in Lahore, including PP-146, PP-148, PP-150, PP-151, PP-154, PP-156, PP-159, PP-160, PP-162, PP-164, PP-166, PP-170, PP-172, and PP-173.
Among these constituencies, significant ones include PP-159, where Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was a candidate, and PP-164, vacated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Other notable modifications were made in constituencies won by prominent figures such as Aleem Khan of the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party and Hamza Shehbaz in NA-118.
Besides these Lahore constituencies, the ECP also updated folders of another 26 national and provincial assembly constituencies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In Punjab, these included NA-99, NA-101, NA-103, and NA-104 (Faisalabad), all won by PTI-backed candidates, including Sahibzada Hamid Raza of the Sunni Ittehad Council.
Other affected constituencies included NA-136 and NA-138 in Okara, NA-181 in Layyah, and NA-183 in Taunsa. Updates were also noted in eight provincial assembly seats, including PP-22 (Chakwal), PP-23 (Talagang), PP-108 (Faisalabad), PP-186 and PP-187 (Okara), PP-197 (Pakpattan), and PP-213 (Multan).
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, modifications were noted in eight national and provincial constituencies, including NA-35, won by former minister Sheryar Afridi from Kohat, and other constituencies won by PTI-backed candidates.
When contacted, an ECP official claimed that if Form 46s had been uploaded instead of Form 45s in some folders, it was an honest mistake without malicious intent.
He emphasized that it was not possible to change Form 45s at this stage, as copies were already available with the candidates and some were before election tribunals.
However, the official could not adequately explain the recent modifications to the Google Drive folders or why these mistakes predominantly occurred in Lahore constituencies.
This situation highlights the importance of transparency in the electoral process. Section 95(8) of the Elections Act 2017 mandates that returning officers send signed copies of the Consolidated Statement of the Results of the Count and the Final Consolidated Result to the Commission within 24 hours after consolidation proceedings.
Additionally, Section 95(10) requires the Commission to publish these documents on its website within fourteen days of the poll. The ECP’s recent actions, therefore, raise critical questions about adherence to these legal requirements and the integrity of the electoral process.
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