The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will announce official results of polls on Thursday (February 21), after receiving details of count from all the constituencies.
According to unofficial results available on Aaj TV website, Pakistan Peoples Party has so far won 83 seats in 272-member National Assembly, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-N's 69 and Pakistan Muslim League-Q's 43. Independent candidates have secured fourth place with 29 seats, followed by MQM's 19 and ANP's 10. MMA, which received a severe drubbing in the polls, secured five seats, followed by PML-F's four, NPP's two and PPP Sherpao's one.
PPP happens to be the only party in the country whose candidates have won seats in all the four provinces. Former ruling PML-Q, which has suffered a serious debacle, has, nevertheless, fared impressively in Balochistan where its candidates registered impressive victories in both national and provincial assemblies contests.
Unofficial results contain only the total number of votes each candidate has secured as these are being sent by the presiding officers to the returning officers as well as Election Commission immediately after the count.
While the official result, according to the EC, contains each and every detail such as how many ballots were rejected and how many votes were cast through postal ballots.
Compiling of official results involves every bit of information regarding votes and thus takes two to three days. At the time of announcing unofficial results, they said the polling officers or returning officers informed candidates or their polling agents about the time they would be provided final counts.
A copy of final result of each constituency was sent by the returning officer or district returning officer to the provincial EC and original to the EC, said the sources.
The EC then notifies official result in the official gazettes thus it becomes permanent record of the government. Meanwhile, the EC said that fresh proceedings of PP-154 Lahore-XVIII where election was terminated due to death of Chaudhry Asif Ashraf will commence after the election schedule for the said constituency is announced.
The Election Commission Secretary said that it was not necessary for the remaining contesting candidates from that constituency to file fresh nomination papers or make further deposit under Section 13 of the Act.