PESHAWAR, May 15: Eight candidates for NA-36 Mohmand Agency and one each for NA-40 North Waziristan Agency and NA-39 Orakzai Agency have rejected the May 11 election results and demanded re-elections on these seats as they alleged their opponents had rigged the polls.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Fata leader and NA-40 candidate Nek Amal Khan said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had failed to ensure free and impartial elections and the influential candidates managed to change the results by use of money.

Flanked by his supporters, including Nazar Din and Malik Gul Naeem, he said that people’s opinion was hijacked by rigging the polls. “We will not accept such elections and results in which democratic norms are violated,” he said.

He held the ECP and political administration responsible for the failure to ensure transparency in the electoral process, saying the two had not taken sufficient measures to hold fair elections. He claimed that ballot boxes at a number of polling stations were unsealed and replaced by forcibly expelling the polling staff.

He said that no action was taken against rigging in NA-40 despite bringing it into notice of local administration and ECP staff.

He claimed that over 33 candidates had contested election from NA-40 constituency and most of them were not satisfied with the results.

Nek Amal demanded that the ECP and Nadra should re-verify the polled votes in NA-40 and hold transparent re-elections under impartial administration and supervision of security forces.

Abbas Raza, an independent candidate from NA-39 Orakzai Agency, demanded of the ECP to carry out re-verification of thousands of the alleged bogus votes polled in this constituency.

At a separate press conference here on Wednesday, he said that over 40 candidates had contested election from NA-39 and there were approximately 100,000 registered voters in the constituency.

Mr Raza alleged that bogus ballots were polled at the office of district election office. “We will not accept the results and would continue protest till holding of free and fair election in NA-39,” he warned.

He accused another independent candidate Dr Ghazi Jamal of involvement in poll rigging, saying that half of over 9,000 polled votes were bogus. He claimed that finger prints were not available on most of the ballot papers. He said that if the Nadra checked majority of the polled votes would be rejected.

He demanded of the ECP to re-verify fingerprints through Nadra and then hold re-election in NA-39.

A group of eight losing candidates from NA-36 constituency of Mohmand Agency on Wednesday also refused to accept the poll results and threatened to besiege the Governor’s House if the ECP did not announce schedule for re-elections on the seat.

At a joint press conference the candidates, including Haji Zar Khan of PML-N, Dawood Khan of PTI, Mohammad Saeed of JI and independents Nisar Ahmad, Shahsawar, Malik Asghar, Dawood Khan Safi, Abid Shah and Rahim Shah, alleged that the elections in their constituency were rigged.

They claimed that the voters were forced to remain confined to their homes on the polling day, alleging that independent candidate Bilal Rehman won the elections in connivance with the polling staff.

They also said that around 3,700 voters could not cast ballots as a polling station in Shaheed Banda was shifted to a school in Sher Ali area without any prior notice to the voters. “The presiding officer and returning officer polled number of fake votes in favor of Bilal Rehman,” they alleged and urged the ECP to hold re-election otherwise they would besiege the Governor’s House next week.

However, at the fourth press conference Ishtiaq Ahmad Orakzai from NA-39 rejected the reservations of opponent candidates and claimed elections were held in transparent manner.