PESHAWAR: The candidates, who lost polls in PK-109 constituency of Kurram tribal district, held a protest in Parachinar on Monday against what they called poll rigging.

They alleged that the elections were rigged for ‘selected member of the provincial assembly’ and demanded of Election Commission of Pakistan to hold back poll result and verify the votes through Nadra biometric system.

“We don’t accept the selected MPA. We respect democracy and if anyone derails it through rigged election, we would adopt legal course,” said one of the protesting candidate for PK-109.

The protesters came out on road and recorded their protest in front of Parachinar Press Club. They alleged that the polls were rigged with the help of administration by the ‘selected’ PTI government.

The runner up, Inayat Hussain Turi, and five other independent candidates along with their supporters raised anti-government slogans and alleged that administration was involved in poll rigging. They blamed ECP and administration for installing faulty CCTV cameras at many polling stations. They said that despite low turnout on many polling stations, 98 per cent votes were shown polled that was not true.

The candidates said that despite having majority, they were kicked out with proper planning and their mandate was stolen. However, they said that they believed in democratic ways of protest and would adopt legal course against ‘rigging’ of elections in PK-109.

The protesters demanded of ECP, President and senior officials to hold back the results polls in PK-109 and verify the votes by Nadra with biometric.

It is pertinent to mention here that PTI’s Iqbal Mian won the elections held on July 20 by getting 39,536 votes while runner up Inayat Hussain has bagged 22,975 votes.

Jalal Hussain, a tribal elder, said that voters of overseas Pakistanis had also been polled which was clear violation of ECP rules.

Mehmood Ali Jan demanded fair recounting and biometric verification of votes.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2019