KARACHI: Rejecting the results of the local government elections held in two phases in Sindh, the Grand Democratic Alliance on Wednesday demanded fresh polls across the province.

The demand was made in a meeting of GDA leadership at the Functional House.

The meeting unanimously rejected the local government elections held on June 26, 2022 in Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad divisions and on Jan 15 this year in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions for being “rigged” by the Sindh government and the Election Commission.

A statement issued after the meeting said that the GDA would unite all democratic and Sindh-loving parties to resist what it called “fascism of the Sindh government”.

“We will approach the judiciary to get the LG elections nullified,” it said, adding that no election can be held in a transparent manner in the presence of “Zardari mafia”.

The GDA leaders said that the mandate of the people of Sindh had been stolen through the rigged elections.

The meeting noted that massive rigging was carried out at all polling stations across Sindh. “It was the worst election in the history. The Election Com­mission did not take any notice despite the fact that many videos of vote stuffing went viral on social media. This shows the Elec­tion Commission is also involved,” the statement said.

The leaders expressed concern that the Sindh government did not comply with the order of the Sup­reme Court and organised local government elections without making amen­dments to the relevant local government laws.

They called upon the authorities to hold fresh local government elections.

The meeting was attended by Pakistan Peoples Party-Workers leader Dr Safdar Abbasi, Pakistan Mulsim League-Functional leaders Sardar Rahim and Nand Kumar Golkani, Sindh United Party’s Zain Shah, Hasnain Mirza, Sardar Sadiq Khoso, Shafqat Hussain Shah, Khawaja Naveed Amin and others.

PTI also demands new polls

Later in the evening, the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf also dema­nded holding of local government polls afresh in Sindh.

Speaking at a press conference, PTI leader Khurram Sher Zaman said that the local government elections were controversial and his party rejected such a fake exercise. He demanded that the Elec­tion Commission hold the LG polls again in a free, fair and transparent manner.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2023