Karachi (HRNW) The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hear Jamat-e-Islami’s (JI) plea against rigging and incorrect count in the second phase of the local government (LG) polls in Sindh on January 23, it said in a statement.
JI had filed complaints regarding rigging and incorrect vote count in six union councils of Karachi and demanded action against the district returning officers (DRO) and returning officers (RO) involved.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), with 91 seats, emerged as the single largest party in the LG polls held in Karachi on January 15. JI, with 88 seats, remained the second biggest party, with PTI in the third position with 40 seats.
The PML-N secured seven, JUI-F three, and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), independent candidates and others ended up with two UCs each.
Separately, JI leader Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, in a press conference in Karachi, accused the PPP of post-poll rigging and demanded to halt the recounting process in all controversial UCs.
The JI leader claimed that the Sindh government influenced the electoral staff to tamper results in PPP’s favour. He urged the PTI to not file recount applications, claiming that the PPP would use it to their advantage and steal Karachi’s mandate.
“The ballot boxes from all objected UCs should be sent to the ECP office and recounted in the ECP officials’ presence,” said Hafiz Naeem.
He added that the local government (LG) polls were postponed four times, and people were kept in confusion intentionally so that a large number of people do not vote.
Despite their reservations over the delimitations, he added, they strived to hold the LG polls in the city. However, there were delays during the polls, Form 11 and Form 12 were not provided timely after the counting ended, and the Returning Officers’ results differed from the Form 11 and Form 12 results in many constituencies, he added.
He added that their workers were attacked and fired upon, but they would continue protecting the people’s mandate. The JI leader accused the presiding officers of double-stamping JI’s votes so that the ballot gets rejected.
“PPP should respect JI’s thumping mandate given by the people of Karachi,” he said, adding that the next mayor of Karachi would be from the JI.
The JI Karachi chief announced to celebrate a thanksgiving day at MA Jinnah Road tomorrow on their successful LG polls campaign.