Results of NA-75 by-poll were not announced as the PMLN alleges that there is controversy in which 23 presiding officers had “gone missing” late at night.
Police however reported that the officers were held back due to fog and hadn’t actually gone missing. As it neared late night, Police officials themselves went to retrieve the officers and bring them to the election poll where both the members of PMLN and PTI were already present.
Moreover, ECP stated that they had tried contacting the officers but none of them could be reached.
Geo News reported that ECP had contacted Punjab IG and the relevant commissioner and deputy commissioner to recover the officers and look into the matter of why they were late, but ECP’s election commissioner received no response from them. Furthermore, the Punjab chief secretary was also contacted and gave the assurance that the officer would be recovered but only after a few hours passed he too couldn’t be contacted anymore.
The missing officer arrived with the polling bags at 6am. Hence, ECP in an explanatory statement said that there are possibilities of rigging at 20 polling stations in the NA-75 by-election which is why the results of the constituency can’t be announced as of yet.