Ruling party to rig LG polls, says Wattoo

The Election Commissioner of Pakistan and Secretary Election Commission should immediately take notice of the massive rigging plan of the ruling party in the local bodies elections that will be implemented through Deputy Commissioners and officers of the Punjab government who are appointed as District Returning Officers and Presiding officers, said Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo in a statement issued on Monday.
He said if the ECP does not take immediate action to scuttle the massive rigging plan then the whole responsibility would be on the Election Commission of Pakistan that apparently was looking to the other side at present. He added the members of the ECP have become controversial as most of the Opposition Parties were demanding their resignations.
He demanded that the sessions judges be appointed as District Returning Officers and Senior Civil Judges and Civil Judges as Presiding Officers to ensure the impartiality and authenticity of the local bodies’ elections in the province. The Punjab government officers are the personal servants of the Punjab government’s top functionaries who are known for giving preference to loyalty over merit, he maintained. These officers cannot go against the wishes of their masters come what may, he observed.
He pointed out that the officers of the Punjab government had already been favouring te ruling party candidates by establishing polling stations near their residential premises or in the close proximity of the property they were holding the proprietary rights. He forewarned that if the mentioned rigging plan was implemented then the people would forget the rigging of 2013 elections.