Ballots take precedence over Form 45 or 47 tally, rules SC

Reports a Supreme Court judgment, delivered by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa in an appeal from the Quetta election tribunal's decision of 2 August 2024 on the Balochistan Assembly seat PB-14 Naseerabad-II, holding that 'the ballot papers which are cast is the primary evidence of the election result'. The Court held that Forms 45 and 47 carry a presumption of correctness until the ballot papers are ordered to be recounted, and that only a physical recount of the sealed ballots can displace the figures in the forms. The tribunal's decision was upheld.