ISLAMABAD: PPP leader Mir Baz Mohammad Khan Khetran has alleged that elections in Balochistan were rigged and said even personnel of the Frontier Corps were involved in irregularities on polling day.

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Mr Khetran said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had failed in conducting free, fair and transparent elections.

He alleged that in his constituency — NA-263 (Loralai in Barkhan district) — FC personnel took away ballot boxes from the polling stations and stuffed them with stamped ballot papers of the candidate of their choice.

Maulana Ameer Zaman of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl has been declared winner from NA-263 with 29,504 votes. Mr Khetran obtained 22,101 votes followed by Sardar Yaqoob Nasir of PML-N with 22,025 votes. Mr Khetran called upon Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to take notice of the alleged involvement of FC personnel in rigging.

He claimed that he could identify the officials who had allegedly replaced ballot boxes with already-filled boxes in the office of the deputy commissioner of Barkhan.

The PPP leader accused the deputy commissioners of Musakhel and Loralai of being involved in rigging. There were hidden hands that wanted to bring religious and ethnic forces to power.

Mr Khetran appealed to the ECP to verify thumb impressions on the ballot papers and postpone announcement of official results till completion of the process. He offered to bear the cost of carrying out the process.

He alleged that when he tried to present proofs of rigging before the ECP, one of its members refused to hear him.

The PPP leader condemned registration of cases against Mudassir Rizvi, the chief executive of Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), saying Mr Rizvi was being victimised because he had pointed out irregularities in elections.