KARACHI: Major contesting parties, except the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), on Friday rejected the results of Feb 8 polls, with some holding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) responsible for its ‘failure’ that led to ‘rigged, manipulated and engineered’ outcome of the multi billion rupees exercise.

The parties also slammed an unusual delay in announcement of election results by the ECP.

In their separate reactions to the poll results, parties like the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Jamaat-i-Islami, Grand Democratic Alliance, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, etc, demanded that the ECP and judiciary take notice of the ‘grave violation of the Constitution’ which would only cause more political instability and chaos in the country.

JI-Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman was the first who termed the Feb 8 elections a ‘miserable failure’ of the ECP and demanded that it ‘fix the mess’ it had created. He announced to lead a protest campaign against the rigged results and stage a sit-in against ‘insult to the people’s mandate’.

“The Election Commission has failed in a miserable manner in holding free and fair elections,” he told a press conference at the Idara Noor-i-Haq headquarters.

PTI-Karachi calls poll result ‘mockery of democracy’

“We will protest and hold sit-ins against the historical rigging and insult to the mandate of the people. Jamaat will expand the scope of protest across the country. The ECP will have to explain what outcome it wants to achieve by violating the mandate of masses time and again. The entire exercise cost the national exchequer Rs48 billion. What was the purpose of such an expensive exercise if the ECP had to announce the result of its own will?”

Detailing the anomalies, he said the ECP had announced that Forms 45 and Forms 46 would be issued on the night of the day of polling but it was not the case as both the forms were issued on Friday.

“For example, in PS-91 the MQM-Pakistan bagged 5,000 votes but in the connected National Assembly seat, the party got 88,000 votes,” he said. “According to the announcement, JI candidate in NA-236 received only 21,000 votes. Similarly, Alamgir Khan, the PTI-backed independent candidate, bagged only 10,000 votes as per the official announcement, whereas both the candidates received much more votes as per Forms 45 and 46.”

GDA rejects results

The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) categorically rejected the results and vowed to come up with strong reaction by exercising its democratic right after consultation with the party leadership.

In a statement, it also accused the ECP of deliberately ignoring the complaints and violation of the code of conduct to favour a ‘blue-eyed party’.

“From Karachi to Kashmore and from Hyderabad to Ghotki, these bogus and rigged elections have once again raised question about the future of Pakistan’s democracy,” the statement said.

“The nation has been deceived and the people of Sindh were left abandoned once again. It’s nothing but failure of the Election Commission and caretaker government. Everyone here is actually safeguarding the system of corruption and benefitting from it. We have appealed to the workers to stay peaceful and wait for the protest call from the leadership.”

‘Insult to voters’

The PTI, which was deprived of its election symbol bat but had fielded its workers as independent candidates on all seats of Karachi and other parts of Sindh, called the results ‘ridiculous, shameful and mockery of democracy’.

In a brief statement, the party’s Karachi chapter said that all those independent candidates who were leading till midnight lost in final results released on Friday evening.

“In five of the city’s seven districts — Central, East, Malir, Keamari and South — our candidates had swept the polls on both NA and PS seats. The workers were celebrating after compiling results through Form-45 received from all respective polling stations. But when the final results were announced, all independent candidates stood defeated.”

The party stated that it was an insult to the voters and would only weaken democracy and disappoint youngsters.

The Markazi Muslim League and TLP also rejected the results and questioned the performance of the ECP and caretaker government as both ‘failed’ to ensure free polling process and fair counting of the votes.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2024