On Wednesday, PTI officials claimed Fake website spreading misinformation about PTI-backed candidates: Fact-check imitating one that was started to give information on independent candidates supported by the party running for office and that this website was giving voters false information.
The assertion is valid since neither the party’s records nor the official lists released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) supported the candidate information provided by the aforementioned website, pticandidate.com.
PTI activist Azhar Mashwani stated on social media on Wednesday that pticandidates.com was the official website of the party for gathering information on candidates, according to fact-checking website iVerify Pakistan.
He claimed that a few individuals were attempting to disseminate false information by establishing a website with a similar name. He noted that although the purported fake website had a “candidate,” the official portal’s URL did not.
تحریک انصاف کا ویب پورٹل http://pticandidates.com ہے ایک اس سے ملتے جلتے نام کی ویب سائٹ بنا کر دو نمبر لوگ غلط انفارمیشن پھیلانے کی کوشش کر رہے ہیں فرق: اصل پورٹل میں candidates لفظ ہے جعلی والے میں صرف candidate
Jibran Ilyas, head of PTI social media, shared the same remarks. Some dishonest people have created a fake website using inaccurate candidate information. The domain that contains the word “candidates” is correct; the bogus one omits the “s” from candidates,” he declared.
It should be mentioned that the party “relaunched” its website on Tuesday in order to provide voters with information about independent candidates supported by the PTI.
“Write your constituency for national or provincial assembly. You will see the candidate’s name, election symbol, and WhatsApp channel.”
تحریک انصاف کے ٹکٹ ہولڈرز کا ویب پورٹل دوبارہ لانچ کر دیا گیا ہے لنک: http://pticandidates.com یا http://insaf.pk/election2024 اب اپنا قومی یا صوبائی اسمبلی کا حلقہ لکھیں تو: امیدوار کا نام، اس کا انتخابی نشان، اور اس کا whatsapp channel آپ کے سامنے آ جائے گا، یہ تفصیلات اپنے گرد و نواح تک پہنچائیں اور امیدوار کا whatsapp channel بھی فالو کریں
However, as of 1:10 PM on Thursday (today), the iVerify platform reported that the websites that the party had provided were not operational.
The platform then looked into the apparently fraudulent portal to see if the data was verified by official ECP candidate lists released on Sunday, official PTI candidate lists for National Assembly seats, or data obtained through messages on party leader Imran Khan’s official Facebook page.
When looking for the NA-241 constituency in Karachi, one found Khurram Sher Zaman, who had the “dhol” symbol on both Imran’s official Facebook page and the purported website.
Verifying the same with the official NA candidate list from Sindh of the ECP confirmed the same.
The team looked up Afzaal as the candidate for NA-123 on the PTI’s official list of affiliated candidates for the NA in order to solve the puzzle.
The iVerify platform came to the conclusion that the PTI’s claim that the website is fraudulent is valid and true based on its analysis of the mentioned constituencies across all the sources.
The data obtained from the portal featured another occurrence of election symbols in addition to displaying candidates other than those listed in the PTI and ECP lists.
The website kept presenting false and inconsistent information even after the electoral watchdog’s official release of the candidate lists.
