PP-147: PTI's Shoaib Siddiqui victorious, defeats PML-N's Mohsin Latif
Siddiqui achieved his triumph by securing 31993 votes while his opponent Latif managed 28641 votes.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate Shoaib Siddiqui emerged victorious on Sunday by defeating Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate Mohsin Latif in PP-147 constituency by- election. Siddiqui achieved his triumph by securing 31993 votes while his opponent Latif managed 28641 votes.
The seat was also contested by Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) candidate Iftikhar Shahid but could not keep up with the competition of PTI and PML-N hopefuls.
The vote counting was closely followed and PTI’s success was celebrated on the social media website Twitter.
I heartily thank voters of PP-147 who enabled me to defeat the Noon League opponent. This vindicates PTI s rigging stance of GE 2013.
— Shoaib Siddiqui (@ShoaibPTI_PP147) October 11, 2015
.@ShoaibPTI_PP147 welcomed with warm hugs and determination of keep fighting against status co pic.twitter.com/jLjIAEabIq
— PTI Lahore Official (@PTIOfficialLHR) October 11, 2015
We need a celebration tomorrow on winning PP147 n a fantastic match on NA122. @ImranKhanPTI @ChMSarwar @JahangirKTareen
— Platinum Insafian (@AHFarooqui) October 11, 2015
PTI leads with 2500 votes in PP147; this as 75% of the votes have now been counted #PTIinTheLead pic.twitter.com/I2wc8Zh1hi
— PTI (@PTIofficial) October 11, 2015
The PP-147 constituency had been won previously by Latif who managed to secure 36781 votes in the 2013 general elections while Siddiqui followed up with 30174 votes. However, PTI decried massive rigging and ballot stuffing in the general elections including the PP-147 constituency accusing PML-N and even the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and took to the streets protesting the results.
The claims were investigated by the ECP and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). Election Tribunals were formed to probe the rigging cases. NADRA revealed that 3,267 of the 4,726 votes in 6 polling stations of PP-147 could not be verified.
A post-election report was issued in this regard by ECP in which it admitted that complete or partial rigging had indeed taken place and held the Returning Officers (RO) taken from lower judiciary responsible for the confusion.
The Election Tribunal declared the results of 5 out of 20 constituencies, including PP-147, as void and ordered re-polling, calling the candidates who won as ineligible.
