February 17, 2008	Sunday	Safar 09, 1429

THATTA, Feb 16: The district administration has brought down the number of highly-sensitive polling stations to 233 from 276 citing shortage of police force, a step seen by the Pakistan People’s Party leaders as part of pre-poll rigging.

The administration had earlier declared 276 of 588 polling stations as highly-sensitive and 110 as sensitive.

Thatta DPO told Dawn that shortage of police force had led to the decision. Personnel of Rangers would be deployed at 70 highly-sensitive polling stations to help police maintain law and order on the election day, he said.

But PPP leaders Sassui Palijo, Jalil Memon, Arbab Wazir and Humera Alwani saw it as part of pre-poll rigging. The electoral malpractices would lead to disastrous consequences if authorities did not treat PPP’s complaints seriously, said Ms Alwani.

She said that a European Union observer had confided to her that the Shirazi group had already manipulated postal ballots and made arrangements to rig polls through 24 presiding officers.

She said that local authorities had exaggerated security fears in such a way that the EU team with Mr Pierre Seillal, consul general of France, as head, which was scheduled to arrive in Thatta to monitor election, had decided to monitor the situation from Karachi. This, too, was tantamount to pre-poll rigging, she alleged.