BADIN: The polling on the Sindh Assembly’s constituency PS-70 Matli (BADIN II) seat has ended and the vote count is currently underway, ARY News reported on Thursday.
The voting started at 8:00 am and continued till 5:00 pm without any break to elect a representative of the constituency in the provincial legislature.
According to unofficial and unconfirmed results of four polling stations, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Bashir Ahmed Halepoto is leading with 387 votes. JUI’s Maulana Gul Hassan is behind with 104 votes.
The seat was fallen vacant due to the death of the Pakistan People’s Party’s Bashir Ahmed Halepoto. The People’s Party has awarded a party ticket for the by-election to Ahmad Abdullah Halepoto.
Six candidates including PPP’s Ahmad Abdullah Halepoto, JUI-F’s Maulana Gul Hassan, GDA’s Shahid Virk, MWM’s Asad Leghari and banned TLP’s Pir Muhammad Ali Sarhandi are contesting the by-poll.
The arrangements for the by-polls in the constituency had been finalized by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, the ECP has asked the local administration to appoint healthcare staff during the Matli by-election in order to effectively implement COVID SOPs during the polling process.
As many as 166,809 voters were registered in the constituency, including 75,222 women and 91,587 men, the district returning officer (DRO) informed the meeting. Of the 123 polling stations, consisting of 423 polling booths, 194 were established for women and 229 for men.
The election commission yesterday served a show-cause notice to JUI candidate Maulana Gul Hassan in the PS-70 Badin constituency over violation of the code of conduct.
