Losing candidates allege rigging, seek re-election

PESHAWAR: At least seven press conferences and several demonstrations were held here Monday as the protestors rejected the local government elections staged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on May 30 and demanded re-election.
The mismanagement, irregularities and rigging allegations in these polls have led to wide-scale protests in the provincial capital and elsewhere in the province.
Even the Jamaat-e-Islami and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), the coalition partners of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) in the provincial government, are not satisfied with the arrangements and demanded re-polling.
The Sher Shah Suri Road turned into a busy place on Monday as it was the sight of several demonstrations. It was astonishing to note that almost all the political parties including the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), its candidates and supporters were among those who staged protests.
The protesters complained of mismanagement and irregularities in the local government election that created differences among the people at the union council level.Besides PTI’s losing candidates, the ones from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Awami National Party (ANP) and others from Peshawar district talked about their plight and distributed “proofs” of what they termed election rigging including torn pieces of ballot papers, ballots without carrying election symbols and fake ballot papers.
Blaming the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for all the problems, the candidates and their supporters were unanimous in demanding re-polling under the supervision of the Pakistan Army.
At their separate press conferences and demonstrations, they rejected election results and threatened to launch protest campaigns if their demands were not met.Terming the May 30 local government elections as worst in history, former provincial minister and ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak condemned the PTI government for arresting their party leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
Flanked by Shahid Khattak and others, he termed it political victimisation and conspiracy against his party leader and said the rulers would not succeed in their mission.He condemned the PTI activists for attacking Mian Iftikhar’s office in Pabbi town. He alleged that the PTI workers wanted to kill the ANP leader.
He said Mian Iftikhar was arrested and a case was lodged against him despite the fact that the father of deceased had exempted him of the murder charge and denied having filed a case against him. He said the government had appointed PTI workers as presiding officers for the local government polls in Nowshera.
The ANP leader said ballot boxes were destroyed at various polling stations and voting was allowed till 12 at night. He said the PTI leaders accused PML-N of rigging in May 2013, but the provincial government couldn’t hold free and fair election and instead blamed the ECP for its failure.
He urged all losing candidates to remain calm, saying the chief minister would not be able to come out if they started staging protests. He demanded immediate release of Mian Iftikhar and holding of re-election at the expense of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
Some losing candidates Syed Karim, Syed Haleem, Zahid Khan, Subhanullah, Attaullah, Zarmat Afridi, Rehmatullah Mujahid and others claimed at a press conference that the ballot papers didn’t carry their election symbols.
District and Town councils candidates from Deh Bahadur ward No 29, including ANP’s Dr Abdul Jabbar, Khan Zeb Khan, PML-N’s Shakeel Shah and others said polling started at 11am, but stamps and ballot papers were missing till 3pm.
They accused their opponents of polling bogus votes. They said the presiding officer also confirmed bogus voting. They warned to move the court to get justice if election at Ward No 29 was not declared null and void.
The candidates for town council, Surizai Payan, Jan Afzal Surizai asked the ECP to take notice of broken ballot boxes and rigging at Union Council 67. Speaking at a press conference, he threatened to besiege the ECP offices if re-election was not announced.
Candidates from different religio-political parties from Union Council 3, Peshawar including Mohammad Wisal, Mian Tariq Shah, Naik Mohammad, Nasir Mohmand, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP)’s Qazi Asad and others at a joint press conference accused the PTI-headed provincial government of rigging.
They warned to continue protest if action was not taken against those who ‘changed’ election results.District council candidates from Union Council Mashogagar, including, independent contestant Rehmanullah and ANP’s Waqar Ahmad told a press conference that the government broke all records of corruption and rigging.
They alleged that two police officials were deployed outside polling station and PML-N candidates were busy casting the votes. The presiding officers, they said, were casting votes on behalf of the women.