Amid questions on delayed results and allegations of rigging, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has commented on the second phase of Local Government (LG) elections in Karachi, Hyderabad.

The commission explained that compiling the results is, “a complicated process” and said it takes time to prepare the result of one union council.

In its statement on Monday, the ECP said the results are being transferred to the offices of Returning Officers (RO) from all polling stations across the city.

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The provincial election commissioner said that each RO had to compile the result of at least five UCs, which “is causing a delay in releasing poll results”.

However, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) openly accused the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), provincial administration and the electoral body of wrongdoing, warning that any attempt to “change the results” after voting would lead to a strong reaction.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi President Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said: “We are not getting results from the returning officers despite 18 hours of delay since the conclusion of polling.”

He strongly condemned the delay and called on the concerned authorities to stop the ROs who are “trying to change the results”.

He said that a lot of people from the PPP also voted for JI. He further said that his party has won over 100 seats, adding that there is ambiguity on the rest of the seats.

As of now, it’s being reported that PPP leads with victorious on 46 UCs, Jamat-e-Islami has secured 17, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) 13, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) three, Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (JUI-F) two, while banned organisation Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) and an independent have one won seat each.

Voting started early on Sunday morning amid a low turnout, however, official results are still not declared as of Monday afternoon. It is pertinent to mention that a day before the polls, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan announced that they are boycotting the local government polls