LAHORE: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) data reveals that 24,000 new voters have been registered in NA-120, the seat vacated after former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif s disqualification by Supreme Court (SC) last week.
According to the data published by ECP, there was an increase of 24,000 voters recorded in NA-120 since General Election (GE) 2013. The total number of votes in GE 2013 was 297,000 when Nawaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) had bagged 91,683 votes while his opponent from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Dr Yasmin Rashid had secured 52,354 votes.
The increase in the number of votes was recorded during the period after the elections till December 2016. From January 2017 to July 2017, only 65 new voters were registered.
Historically, PML-N has retained the seat. Shehbaz Sharif was initially nominated by the party to contest the NA-120 seat. However, media sources now claim that Shehbaz will likely continue working as Punjab Chief Minister while Kulsoom Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif s wife, is being considered as the possible PML-N candidate against PTI s Yasmin Rashid.
The by-election in the said constituency will be held on September 17, 2017.
