JUI-F wants a vote recount in NA-45 Kurram constituency

• JUI-F demands vote recount in NA-45 Kurram
• The JUI-F leaders reject the NA-45 Kurram by-poll result, allege record rigging
• Local administration, ECP, returning officers, district returning officers and presiding officers involved in defeating JUI-F candidate, says party leader

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wants a vote recount for the recently held by-polls in the NA-45 Kurram constituency.

JUI-F’s Munir Khan Orakzai won the National Assembly seat in the July 2018 general elections. It fell vacant after his death from coronavirus.

PTI's Malik Fakharuzaman won the recent by-polls in NA-45.

But JUI-F Information Secretary Abdul Jalil Jan alleged that PTI had rigged the by-polls. 

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He addressed a press conference outside the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday with the party's deputy general secretary Ahmad Saeed and information secretary Qari Jehad Shah Afridi.

The JUI-F leaders rejected the NA-45 Kurram by-poll result.

Jan said JUI-F candidate Mohammad Jamil had won the seat, but was declared the loser.

He alleged that the local administration, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), returning officers, district returning officers and presiding officers were involved in defeating the JUI-F candidate.

The JUI-F leader claimed that the people in Kurram had once again reposed confidence in his party and its candidate in the February 19 by-election.

Read more: By-polls held on four vacant national, provincial seats in Punjab, KP

He said this constituency was a stronghold of the JUI-F and its candidate was leading in 120 polling stations till late night apart from maintaining his lead on 14 polling stations, but the result was changed in favour of the PTI candidate.

JUI-F submitted an application for a vote recount on February 20, but the party leaders said it is not "being honoured".

Jan said JUI-F will launch a protest movement if there is no vote recount.