Former National Assembly speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza remained the runner up in PS-73 (Badin-IV) after a re-count of votes that finished on Saturday. Dr Mirza had contested the July 25 elections from PS-73 and NA-230 on ticket issued by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). She won the NA seat but lost to PPP’s Taj Muhammad Mallah in PS-73. However, she rejected the result citing ‘massive rigging and electoral irregularities’ and submited a request for a re-count of votes. Mallah was declared winner with a 280-vote lead. He polled 37,645 votes against Dr Mirza’s 37,364 votes. After the recount on Saturday, his lead got extended to 896 votes, as Dr Mirza received 36,321 votes and the latter bagged 37,217 votes in the recount. Recounting process is also underway in NA-230 (Badin-II) constituency on the request of PPP’s Haji Rasool Bux Chandio, who had lost to Dr Mirza with a slim margin of 860 votes. Published in Daily Times, August 5th 2018.