ECP plans to rig polls through executive officers: PTI

Omar said Pakistan was being pushed down a path from which democracy will never recover

By Our Correspondent
November 13, 2023
People line up as election officials check their ballot papers during voting in the general election at a polling station in Lahore. — AFP/File
People line up as election officials check their ballot papers during voting in the general election at a polling station in Lahore. — AFP/File

ISLAMABAD: PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Sunday alleged that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was planning to appoint Grade-17 and 18 officers from the Executive, with less than one year in their retirement, as district returning officers (DROs) and AROs.

“This is a clear and blatant attempt to rig the upcoming general election on February 08. These very officers will be given a carrot of being looked after if they comply with the instructions of rigging, failing which, they will be shown the stick of retirement with no fringe benefits; a vast majority of these officers will take the option of being rewarded for executing rigging,” he alleged on X.

Omar said Pakistan was being pushed down a path from which democracy will never recover.

“We are heading into very dark days ahead as plans of pre-poll rigging and outright rigging the February 08, 2024 elections become apparent,” he wrote.