Thirteen days after announcing the results, the Election Commission (EC) has revised the referendum outcome. And, the EC has already published a corrected gazette notification.
Compared with the previously published results, the total number of votes cast has decreased by 1,073,616.
In the revised results, both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ votes have declined, while the number of rejected ballots has increased.
The corrected gazette, dated 25 February, was signed by the EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed.
The referendum was held on 12 February to implement the constitutional proposals of the July National Charter. The following day, 13 February, the EC secretary unofficially announced the referendum results alongside the national parliament election results.
A gazette notification was issued later that night. However, discrepancies were found between the figures for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ votes announced by the EC secretary and those published in the gazette the same night.
On the afternoon of 13 February, the EC secretary had stated unofficially that 48,074,429 ‘Yes’ votes and 22,565,627 ‘No’ votes were cast nationwide. The EC later published constituency-wise results, which revealed several inconsistencies reported in the media. That night, the EC revised the unofficial results.
The gazette published on the night of 13 February stated that a total of 77,695,023 votes were cast in the referendum. With 7,422,637 ballots rejected, the total valid votes stood at 70,272,386. It recorded 48,200,660 ‘Yes’ votes and 22,071,726 ‘No’ votes.
According to the revised gazette issued yesterday, a total of 76,621,407 votes were cast. The number of rejected ballots is 7,435,196, leaving 69,186,211 valid votes. The revised count shows 47,225,980 ‘Yes’ votes and 21,960,231 ‘No’ votes.