Unofficial results: Shah Mahmood Qureshi beaten in NA-230 as PPP sweep re-polling

Among those who lost the race were Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s vice president Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi. He was edged out in NA 230 by PPP’s Noor Muhammad Shah Jeelani by a narrow 1232 votes. Shah bagged 59528 votes to Qureshi’s 58296 votes.

PPP’s candidate for NA-229 Tharparkar, Faqir Sher Muhammad Bilalani won the elections from the constituency.

Bilalani secured 1,774 votes in the repolling at 4 polling stations while his contender, Arbab Toghachi, got only 229 votes.

The total votes obtained by Bilalani from 279 pollings are 86592. Toghachi finished a close second with 84922 votes, according to unofficial results.

In PS 62, Makhdoom Inayatullah, the son of PPP Parliamentarian chairman Makhdoom Ameen Fahim, won against Arbab Anwar Jabbar. Makhdoom polled 36448 votes and Jabbar 28416 votes.

Dr Hyder Bux Samejo, who was twice elected as MNA from NA 230 in 2002 and 2008 elections, suffered for the provincial assembly seat PS 63 by PPP’s Dost Ali Rahimon. The former secured 27675 votes and the latter 28635 votes. Samejo had given up his candidature for NA 230 to accommodate Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The desert district of Tharparkar witnessed an election free of rigging and violence on Saturday as the re-polling in 47 polling stations in NA-229, NA-230, PS-62 and PS-63 constituencies ended peacefully. As many as 42,156 voters were registered to vote.

The only untoward incident happened when the supporters of a political party unsuccessfully tried to disrupt the polling at a station in Chachro town. The army responded in time and arrested a suspect for impeding the voting process.

Allegations of massive rigging, burning and stealing of ballot papers and violence disrupted the election process at these polling stations on May 11. This time around, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) deployed army and Rangers personnel at all the stations to prevent violence and rigging in the fresh polls.

Three seats in the constituencies were being contested by candidates of PPP and the influential Arbab family. Arbabs were supporting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the fourth seat, NA-230.

Qureshi urged the ECP to take notice of the appointment of PPP supportive police officers and presiding staff in Chachro and Nangarparker tehsils prior to the re-polling.

“It’s so unfortunate that the PPP of Shaheed Zulfiqar Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto has been brought to the brink by Zardari’s cabal that it has no confidence of wining without rigging even from Sindh,” he said while talking to reporters in Thar on Saturday.