- April 21, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
The counting of votes for 21 national and provincial seats is underway, and to “safeguard” the electoral process, cellular service has been temporarily suspended in a few districts of Punjab and Balochistan. By-elections for five open seats in the National Assembly, twelve in the Punjab Assembly, and two in each of the legislatures of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were conducted today, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). In Balochistan’s PB-50 (Qila Abdullah) constituencies, re-elections were held today.
The polls opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 5 p.m., after which the vote count started. Unofficial and unverified results are still pending. One day ago, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) declared that on April 21 and 22, Monday, “cellular services will be temporarily suspended in specific districts of Punjab and Balochistan during the by-elections.” According to the statement, the decision was made by the interior ministry’s instructions to “protect the integrity and security of the electoral process.”
During the general elections on February 8, internet and cellphone services were unavailable. Since February 17, when the former commissioner of Rawalpindi accused the chief election commissioner and chief justice of Pakistan of participating in election rigging, access to the social media platform X has been blocked.