By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took a lead in the second-to-last round of local government polls in Sindh, early trends showed, but a longer than expected delay in publishing results prompted opposition leaders to warn they would not accept any attempt to rig the outcome.
Opposition parties accused the provincial election commission of deliberately delaying results to favour the ruling party, reporting irregularities in vote count in the much-awaited poll.
All three major political parties — Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and PPP — claimed they were leading the race.
Authorities said vote count was underway after low turnout was witnessed in key cities including Karachi amid a boycott of polls by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) party.
Election authorities defended the delay in release of official results, denying any irregularities in the electoral exercise.
The voting process for the local government elections ended Sunday evening, but results of a majority of union councils (UCs) in Karachi and Hyderabad cities have yet to be released by the authorities.
Ejaz Anwar Chauhan, the provincial election commissioner, attributed the delay to a large number of voters stepping out of homes around Sunday noon and the completion of the voting process at several polling stations past 7pm.
“Right now, the results are with our ROs, they are drafting all results and God willing, the results of all 246 union committees in Karachi will be finalized by the evening.”
Defending the delay in results, Sindh Election Commissioner Chauhan said the results took time since returning officers had to look after five union committees.
“The results are being manually compiled as the RTS [Results Transmission System] hasn’t been used in these polls,” he maintained. “It takes time to compile the results.”
Local government polls in Sindh were held after the ECP rejected repeated requests of the provincial administration to delay the elections in Karachi and Hyderabad due to concerns raised by the MQM-P over the delimitation of constituencies.
The party, which has a major presence in these urban centers, raised the allegations of “pre-poll rigging” before announcing not to participate in the voting contest.
Even though the election passed off largely peacefully, several people were hurt in clashes between rival political supporters in Karachi. Provincial election commission said the turnout was between 15-20 percent in urban centres, with the turnout dropping in rural areas.
A provincial minister Saeed Ghani said a “neck-and-neck” race was on between his party and the Jamaat-i-Islami for the top slot of Karachi mayor.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf party accused the ruling PPP and the provincial administration of wrongdoing, warning that any attempt to change the results would lead to a strong reaction.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman of Jamaat-i-Islami also warned of sieging the polling stations where he said results were deliberately being delayed ‘to manage things’.
The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) — an umbrella of different political parties representing the opposition — rejected the electoral process and demanded “immediate intervention” of the state institutions. It also blamed the ECP for facilitating the ruling PPP in rigging and violation of the code of conduct.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon accused the opposition party of “committing the worst form of terrorism amid the local government elections”.
“The PTI should stop staging the politics of hooliganism. They are making the process disputed after seeing devastating defeat.”
The MQM-P said the elections in Karachi and Hyderabad failed to win the people’s mandate. “With this [low] turnout, these elections have already lost their moral value,” said MQM-P convenor Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi.
The second round of local government elections was scheduled to take place on July 24 last year, but the Sindh government refused to hold the polls on the lack of security and police presence due to last year’s flooding.
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