Imran Khan tenders written apology for voting in open, swearing-in delayed

Pakistan's Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan on Friday tendered a written apology for violating the secrecy of the ballot, prompting the election commission to withdraw its notice to him, paving the way for his swearing-in next week.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in a 3-1 vote, accepted the apology submitted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson, Dawn news reported.

It also ordered the issuance of notification for his victory in Islamabad's NA-53 constituency where he stamped the ballot paper publicly instead of going behind the voting screen.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza disagreed with the ECP's Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa members, who were in favour of accepting the apology, the report said.

The written reply and the affidavit were submitted by Khan during the hearing held by a four-member bench headed by Raza as the ECP had sought a signed apology from Khan for violating the electoral code of conduct.

The commission yesterday rejected the response submitted by his counsel Babar Awan who had stated that his client did not intentionally stamp his ballot publicly.

He had sought an end to the case and requested the ECP to issue the notification for Khan's victory from NA-53 Islamabad constituency.

The suo motu case against Khan was heard after the ECP took notice of him publicly stamping the ballot paper in NA-53 Islamabad constituency, instead of going behind the voting screen to cast his vote in secrecy.

According to the reply by Khan's counsel, photos of Khan's ballot were taken without his permission and the curtain, used around the ballot for secrecy, had fallen due to the crowd inside the polling booth.

Imran won NA-53 seat by defeating former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, bagging 92,891 votes in contrast to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader's 44,314 votes.

The electoral body has withheld the notification of his success from the constituency in view of the pending case.

According to the election act, a person can be given a six-month jail sentence and/or fine of Rs 1,000 for not casting his/her vote in secrecy.
 

On July 30, the ECP had sought a written reply from Khan, who has been nominated by the PTI as the next Prime Minister after the party emerged as the largest in the National Assembly in the election.

The 65-year-old cricketer-turned-politician had contested from five constituencies and had won from all of them. But the ECP has only granted him temporary permission to take oath as a Member of the National Assembly, pending the outcome of the case of violation of electoral code of conduct.