News
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
‘Free and fair’ election bubble begins to burstBy Farooq Awan
ISLAMABAD: Just two days after the much-trumpeted ‘free and fair’ general election, widespread allegations of rigging in the polling process have raised many an eyebrow, putting the credibility of whole the exercise at stake.
Workers, supporters and leaders of several political parties were on the streets on Tuesday for the second day running, with demands ranging from re-counting to re-polling in several constituencies of all the four provinces.
With hardly any political party satisfied with the results of the elections, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which has emerged as the second largest popular party in a national election that marks the first transition between civilian governments in the nation’s 66-year history, is leading the voice against alleged irregularities in the vote, that, according to them, ranged from falsification of ballot papers to attempts to intimidate the voters.
Imran Khan has alleged large-scale rigging in Punjab and Karachi and demanded recounting on 25 National Assembly seats in Punjab. The PTI has announced to issue a ‘white paper’ on countrywide rigging in the elections.
The PTI’s election complaint cell has already forwarded some 8,000 complaints to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The party workers, comprising youth and women, are continuously protesting in different cities against what they say PML-N’s use of police and polling staff to change polling results in their favour.
The PTI lost to the PML-N two Lahore constituencies, and one of the losers is Imran himself, prompting calls from the party to hold re-election in NA-122 and NA-125 under the army’s supervision. However, the returning officer on Tuesday rejected petition of PTI’s Hamid Khan regarding alleged rigging by PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique in NA-125, Lahore.
Hamid had alleged that the PML-N candidates and their agents ‘in a systematic, deliberate and pre-planned scheme … with the active connivance and support of presiding officers and the police’ cast bogus votes and tampered with ballot boxes and ballot papers.
The Jamiat Ulema e Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman has refused to accept the PTI’s mandate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, terming it ‘fake and fabricated’.
Fazl told a press conference on Tuesday that the PTI had rigged elections in Mardan, Peshawar and Kohat divisions. He also announced to hold protest demonstrations in various districts of the province against the alleged rigging.
The JUI-F leader said that he has contacted Nawaz Sharif and other political parties leaders and independent candidates to form a government in the province based on a ‘true mandate’.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also sees the results of the May 11 elections in Punjab ‘manipulated’ and has announced to come up with ‘solid evidence’ to prove the ‘massive rigging’.
Secretary General Sardar Latif Khosa said election commission had totally failed to stop the use of state machinery by the PML-N to rig the elections
He said his party has accepted its defeat only in the national interest so as to provide democracy a chance to flourish in the country.
In Quetta, BNP-M Senior Vice President Dr Jahanzaib Jamaldini told reporters that hundreds of activists of his party, including women, had been protesting against alleged rigging in the elections. He alleged raids were conducted in parts of Quetta before the polls and BNP-M activities were arrested and terrorised.
He alleged massive rigging in NA-260 Quetta/Chagai, PB-4, PB-5 and PB-6, where BNP-M candidates were leading. He said his party will carry out a province-wide protest on May 15 against the rigging.
Leaders of various political parties on Tuesday met Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed and registered their complaints about rigging in elections.
PML-Q’s Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain Syed, PTI’s Jahangir Tarin, JUI-F’s Maulana Attaullah were the prominent among those whole held a meeting with the secretary and handed over him their written complaints.
The civil society has also joined the chorus against the alleged rigging, with the Free and Fair Election Network exposing voter turnout even greater than the registered number of votes in at least 49 polling stations sampled by the organisation. At least 32 of the above polling stations were found in Punjab, 10 in Sindh, six in KP and one in Balochistan.
The PILDAT has demanded that the ECP and NADRA immediately carry out an audit of thumb impressions in all those constituencies across the country wherever a complaint of rigging has been made.
Delay in announcement of the official election results by the ECP has compelled many to raise suspicions. The ECP could not be reached for comment on allegations of massive rigging and delay in announcement of election results.
As pressure is building up on the ECP to revoke results and hold fresh polls on the troubled constituencies in Karachi, the commission on Tuesday announced re-voting on 43 polling stations in NA-250, Karachi, on May 19.
The ECP had stopped voting at these stations after delays in start of polling at a number of stations in DHA and Clifton coupled with claims of rigging by some political parties. The re-polling will include Sindh Assembly seats PS-112 and PS-113. The re-polling will be held under army’s supervision.
Dr Arif Alvi of the PTI and Khushbakht Shujaat from MQM are contesting from the constituency.
The polling stations where re-polling will be conducted are: 4, 7, 11, 48, 52, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 78, 97, 98, 100, 101, 104, 106, 109, 110, 113, 114, 115, 117, 121, 122, 131, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 148, 165, 168, 175, 177, 179, 180, 157.
MQM’s Mustafa Kamal told reporters after the ECP decision that his party rejects commission’s move to hold re-election.
The ECP, while accepting the application of Jahangir Tareen, has ordered the returning officer to recount votes in NA-154 constituency of Lodhran.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk