MITHI, Feb 20: The Pakistan People’s Party candidates who lost to Arbabs on NA-229, PS-61 and PS-60 accused their rivals on Wednesday of committing large-scale rigging on and before general elections on Feb 18 and demanded re-election for all the seats in Tharparkar district.

Mahesh Kumar Malani and Engineer Pesumal Akrani, PPP candidates for NA-229 and PS-61, alleged that the polls in Tharparkar were completely rigged by the polling staff and police to ensure a win for Pakistan Muslim League candidates.

They said at a news conference that at the behest of local landlords the presiding officers and police held their polling agents hostage, kidnapped a number of agents, opened fire on them, pushed them out of polling stations and stamped ballot papers.

They claimed that six PPP agents were kidnapped by PML supporters from Gungio polling station, five were taken away from Saleh Janjhi polling station, two from Khetlari and three agents were injured at a polling station in Mataro Ji Dhani when PML supporters fired on them.

Five PPP supporters including naib nazim of Adam Hingorjo union council were attacked with axes and clubs and left injured at a polling station in Doonjh, while Mithi SHO impounded vehicles carrying PPP voters, they said.

Though paramilitary Rangers were also deployed in Mithi but only one police constable armed with just a wooden stick was seen deployed at each polling station in the rural area, they said.

More than 2,000 votes registered in villages were cast in Mithi, 15 presiding officers and about 150 polling staff were changed just a day before polling day, they claimed.

They said that they would never accept rigged polls in Thar and challenge them in court. They had submitted complaints to the Election Commission requesting it to conduct thorough inquiry into massive rigging in their constituencies, they said.

They urged the human rights watch and the European Union observers to visit their area and demanded registration of cases against presiding officers, administration officials and EDO of education whom they accused of rigging.

In Badin, Diplo Wali Mohammad Rahimoon, PPP candidate who lost contest for PS-60, his covering candidate engineer Gyanchand and Dilshad Bhutto demanded that the Chief Election Commissioner order re-election for all the seats in Tharparkar district.

They accused their rival Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim of committing large-scale rigging at all the polling stations of PS-60 Diplo. Arbab Rahim, district nazim Arbab Anwar, Arbab Abdul Khaliq, Arbab Taj Mohammad and their henchmen beat up PPP agents and stopped them from sitting in polling stations.

They alleged that 50 of their agents had either been missing or kidnapped and thrown into private jails since the election day. Their personal vehicles were snatched before the polls day, they said.

They said that the government’s claim about holding election in a free, fair and transparent manner was not true at least in Tharparkar and Diplo where ballot boxes were filled with stamped ballot papers by polling staff at 107 polling stations of PS-60. Most of the polling stations recorder voter turnout at above 100 per cent, they claimed.

Result revealed that 80 per cent votes had been cast for his rival Arbab Ghulam Rahim and only 10 per cent for him. Many ballots with stamps on arrow were destroyed, they claimed.

They alleged that nobody in the district administration and polling staff were heeding to their complaints and were openly favouring the Arbabs.

They accused police of refusing to register their complaints against their rivals. They, on the contrary, registered false cases against them, they said.

They said that Diplo police involved 30 innocent people including chief agent Dilshad Bhutto in fake cases and demanded re-election at PS-60 Diplo under impartial polling staff.

In Thatta, PPP leader Arbab Wazir Ahmed rejected the results of NA-238, PS-86 and PS-87 and demanded probe into ‘rigging’ in these constituencies.

He said at a news conference at press club that district nazim Shafqat Shah Shirazi, PML-Q district president Ayaz Hussain Shah and former minister for state Mohammad Ali Malkani were involved in massive rigging.

No personnel of army and Rangers were seen in the constituencies where Shirazis did not even allow PPP agents to sit at polling stations, he alleged.

In Shikarpur, Zulfiqar Ali Kamario, PML candidate who lost election for PS-9, rejected poll results and accused his rival Agha Siraj Durrani, a PPP candidate, of being involved in rigging.

He demanded that the returning officer should recount votes polled in his constituency.