ECP changed data of 40 constituencies raised concerns about election results

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) changed the data belonging to at least 40 constituencies and updated Form 45s on its official Google Drive. ECP’s Google Drive holds submitted information for the 2024 general elections.

The changed data contains results of at least 40 national and provincial assembly constituencies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This action of the ECP has raised concerns about the election process’s transparency. However, it is unclear what changes have been made to the documents, especially because multiple disputes have been brought before election tribunals regarding controversial results.

*Modified data list of Punjab Assembly constituencies by ECP*

It is significant to note that the presiding officer at each polling station signs Form 45. It includes crucial details about polling places and the number of ballots. Hence, it is an essential document of the electoral process.

However, ECP changed data in connection with at least 40 constituencies and updated Form 45s for them after a report by an NGO, Pattan-Coalition 38 was published on July 3, 2024.

The report claimed forms for more than a dozen constituencies were unavailable on the ECP website. On the other hand, ECP rejected this report calling it “baseless.”

Meanwhile, Dawn’s independent review of the legally submitted data found that ECP’s claim was “incorrect”. It claimed that data from ECP’s Google Drive on July 3 showed that Form 45s for up to 14 provincial assembly constituencies in Lahore were missing.

Instead, it had uploaded Form 46s for these constituencies. ECP had not then uploaded Form 45s for several national constituencies.

However, this began to change the following day when ECP added the remaining forms for these constituencies on July 4 and 5. This included included PP-146, PP-148, PP-150, PP-151, PP-154, PP-156, PP-159, PP-160, PP-162, PP-164, PP-166, PP-170, PP-172, and PP-173.

*The modified data by ECP after five months of elections raises concerns about transparency*

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Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz holds the PP-159 seat and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s PP-164 (vacated). However, Aleem Khan holds the PP-150 seat.

Apart from these constituencies, ECP also changed data of 26 national and provincial assembly constituencies. It contains 10 constituencies from Punjab including NA-99, NA-101, NA-103, and NA-104.

PTI-backed candidates won all these four seats. Besides this, ECP changed data of eight KP assemblies and eight national assembly constituencies including NA-35 won by Shehrayar Afridi (PTI). ECP also changed data for several other constituencies but we have covered most notable seats.