LAHORE: The ruling PML-N retained on Sunday its Gujranwala seat by convincingly defeating its rival Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in a by-election which was marred by some incidents of violence and delays in voting because of rain.

According to unofficial results, PML-N’s Rana Akhtar Ali bagged 49,991 votes and PTI’s Ehsanullah Virk 28,380 in the election for the Punjab Assembly seat PP-100 which fell vacant after MPA Rana Shamshad, brother of Rana Akhtar, was shot dead on May 31.

The PTI accepted the defeat but blamed the administration for not providing them a level-playing field. “We accept our defeat,” the party’s organiser in Punjab, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, said while talking to Dawn. He admitted that the polling at most stations was free and fair.

The rain in the morning delayed polling in some rural areas by almost half an hour as voters remained indoors.

Activists of both the parties clashed outside Durgahpur and Kamonki Girls High School polling stations. The PTI alleged that its polling agent had been forced out of the Durgahpur polling station by activists of the PML-N.

The allegation was rejected by the Punjab government’s spokesman, Syed Zaeem Qadri.

PTI supporters alleged that PML-N workers were trying to cast bogus votes at the Kamonki polling station which led to the scuffle.

Chaudhry Sarwar said complaints about forcing out of polling agents and bogus voting poured in after 4pm. He said he wondered why the ruling party adopted such tactics when it already had the edge of “sympathy” vote for Rana Akhtar because of the murder of his brother while the PTI leadership had also not taken the by-election seriously – a reference to the absence of party chairman Imran Khan from the election campaign.

He also said that the PTI had not been allowed a freehand in running its election campaign. “We were denied a public meeting two days before the polling (July 24) and police also did not allow us to take out a procession on the pretext that the PML-N was already scheduled to hold a rally on the same day.

“And when we held a press conference at our Kamonki office on the GT Road where a couple of thousands of our workers also reached, PML-N men assembled there too and attacked PTI activists,” the former Punjab governor said, adding that “police further victimised us by registering cases against our 250 men”.

He said the PML-N should learn a lesson from the increase in PTI vote-bank which doubled in the by-poll, compared to what it had polled in the general election in this constituency.

“Negative tactics are only adding to the fury of the masses against the rulers,” he warned.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza, who was in-charge of the PML-N electioneering and strategy for the Gujranwala by-poll, have congratulated Rana Akhtar on his victory. They termed the victory a show of trust of the masses in the government’s policies.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2015

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