Rigging: ECP announces re-election on Daska seat, summons IG and chief secretary

The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that new elections will be held in NA-75 (Daska) after its returning officer alleged irregularities during the by-polls in a report submitted to the commission on Tuesday.

The election watchdog has said that new elections in the constituency will be held on March 18, two weeks after the Senate elections. According to the ECP, polling will be held in all stations of the NA-75 (Sialkot-IV) instead of a mere 14 because elections weren’t transparent.

The chief election commissioner (CEC) stated that the ECP came to the conclusion that a “conducive environment was not available for the candidates and voters and the election had not been conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in a transparent manner”.

According to Section 9 of the Election Act, the ECP has the power to declare a poll void if “the commission is satisfied that by reason of grave illegalities …have materially affected the result of the poll at one or more polling stations … it can call upon voters to recast their votes.”

‘IG, SECRETARY SUMMONED’:

Meanwhile, the election watchdog has decided to suspend the concerned government officials, particularly the deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, district police officer over rigging in the election. The ECP has also sought an explanation from the police chief of Punjab and the chief secretary, said senior journalist Ansar Abbasi.

The presiding officers, who went “missing” and submitted forged result after several hours, will face trial for their part in the electoral manipulation.

The ECP has decided to suspend concerned DC, DPO, AC, SDPO etc for Daska rigging. Commissioner and RPO will be removed and ED asked to proceed against them. Punjab CS and IGP summoned for explanation. “Missing” presiding officers to face trial which may lead to 3 year jail.

— Ansar Abbasi (@AnsarAAbbasi) February 25, 2021

RIGGING IN BY-POLLS:

In a plea to the ECP, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had alleged that Daska by-polls were hijacked by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the final results were changed to favour Ali Asjad Malhi of the PTI. The vice president of the party, Maryam Nawaz, had also shared a number of videos to back her claims up. She had demanded fresh elections in Daska.

Subsequently, the ECP withheld the results in NA-75 and started a probe into the rigging allegations. The commission had said results of the NA-75 constituency were received with “unnecessary delay”, adding that it tried to contact the presiding officers several times but with no success.

During his appearance before the Election Commission of Pakistan committee on Tuesday, RO Athar Abbas had said that the initial investigation revealed that the presiding officers of at least 20 polling stations manipulated the result.

The RO’s report quoted by Dawn said at least 20 presiding officers went missing for an entire night after the vote count at their station. It added that the presiding officers also appeared before the ECP panel after much delay.

“The replies of almost all the presiding officers were stereotype that they were able to complete the counting process by 10 to 10.30pm and started back journey to the office of returning officer on the transport provided by the Election Commission and in escort of police but due to fog, they reached the office of returning officer at about 4.30am and most of them stated their phone batteries were low and they were having no chargers, in response to the questions that they were supposed to send snapshots of the result of the count through WhatsApp but they did not do the same,” the report read.

As per the report, there was no discrepancy in the record of three out of 23 polling stations from where the presiding officers had disappeared. The returning officer has proposed re-polling at 14 polling stations were there was a marked difference between the number of polled votes in two different sets of form-45.

On Friday, at least two people were shot dead as a result of firing at the polling place in Daska.