KARACHI: Reports surfaced during the polling day of general elections in the city that some ballots were cast without serial numbers on them.

During visits to different polling stations, it was found that extra votes were being added to ballots issued for three national and six provincial constituencies in district south.

Normally, there are 100 votes in a ballot book, but some polling stations had over 100 ballots without serial numbers.

Observers saw instances where votes were cast without serial numbers, despite objections raised by political parties’ agents. Eventually, 11 extra votes were found in the books without serial numbers, and demands were made to invalidate these votes. However, some votes were still cast without serial numbers.

A presiding officer stated that this was an error by the Election Commission, which could lead to discrepancies in results, adding that polled votes could be challenged in courts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024