PPP hands over report on poll rigging to CEC

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Tuesday handed over its report on rigging in the 2018 elections to the chief election commissioner, urging him to “take punitive action under the law against the glaring theft of the general elections 2018”.

A 3-member PPP delegation that handed over the rigging report to the CEC included Senator Taj Haider, head of the Central Election Monitoring Cell of PPP, and Secretary Generals of the PPP and the PPPP Nayyer Hussain Bukhari and Farhatullah Babar. The report has been prepared by the PPP Central Election Cell.

“Sir, crimes once committed are never time barred and in the background of the punitive actions that the ECP has already taken against violations of the Election Act 2017, we look forward to further punitive actions on the theft of the general elections 2018,” the letter accompanying the report said.

The report describes in detail the pre-poll, polling day and the post-poll rigging committed by persons belonging to the administration and the security institutions. “Unfortunately, the polling staff appointed by the Election Commission of Pakistan miserably failed to stop these crimes. It is also possible that some of the appointed staff became partners in these crimes,” it said.

Besides the data collected by the PPP Central Election Cell, the report also includes relevant extracts from various reports on the general elections 2018 prepared and published by various national and international observers who covered those elections.

The letter said: “Of extreme importance are extracts and references to the forensic study and analysis of data posted by the ECP on its website undertaken by the notable election observer FAFEN.

This study brings to light the fact that out of 78,471 forms, only 128 forms had been signed by polling agents who gave the name of the candidates they were representing. In all, there were around 5,000 signed forms on the ECP website, however none except the above-mentioned 128 forms bore the names of candidates and their political affiliation.

One cannot say with certainty if these signatures were genuine signatures of the polling agents or not. This alone is enough to put the legality of the general elections 2018 in question.”

“There are hundreds of thousands of polling agents, candidates, representatives of print and electronic media, representative of election observers, workers of political parties, members of civil society, election officials and those belonging to the general public who are witnesses to the fact that all polling agents were forcibly thrown out of polling stations at the time of vote count and preparation of results besides other crimes under the law committed with glaring impunity,” it said.

“In a very high number of constituencies and especially in the constituencies where PPP candidates were generally expected to win, the results took days and days to be announced.” Talking to the chief election commissioner, the PPP delegation hoped that punitive action against those who rigged the 2018 elections is of profound importance for ensuring free and fair elections in the country in the future.

Later talking with the media after handing over the report to the CEC, Senator Taj Haider said they appealed to the CEC to take action against those involved in rigging. Appreciating the Election Commission of Pakistan, he said the commission did not tolerate any pressure in the by-elections and local body elections. “The Election Commission of Pakistan is doing its job very well,” he said, adding that the elections must be free and transparent as it is not the PPP but the people's demand that the elections should be fair.