KARACHI, May 17: Veteran politician Illahi Bux Soomro has appealed to Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim not to issue a gazette notification regarding the result of NA-208 (Jacobabad) until the verification of thumb impressions of all voters.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Mr Soomro, who contested NA-208, drew the attention of the Chief Justice of Pakistan towards what he described as massive vote rigging in the constituency.

He alleged that not only his rival candidate Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, but the returning officer and presiding officers were also involved in vote rigging.

He appealed to the CJP to take notice and ensure free, fair and transparent re-polling in NA-208.

He claimed that his rival candidate was caught red-handed while supervising stamping of 90 per cent ballots through his polling agents at the polling stations and managed to change the result during the night.

He said that he was leading with a huge margin but later, with the assistance of the army and Rangers, polling stations were raided and all record was handed over to the returning officer (RO), who kept it in his possession for two days.

He said that the results were changed and he was shown to have been defeated by 5,000 votes.

Mr Soomro said that on May 10 and 11 he had written three letters to the Election Commission of Pakistan and the RO informing them about fears of rigging but to no avail.

He said that the 100 per cent results of Garhi taluka polling stations were changed.

Informing newsmen about pre-poll rigging, he said that 15 days before polling day the number of Jacobabad City’s polling stations was increased from 200 to 300 and 30 per cent votes of his constituency were transferred to another district.

He said that his polling agents were given results on a blank paper instead of Form 14-A without the thumb impression of the presiding officer and later all the result was changed.

He said that on May 12 people of Jacobabad staged a sit-in in protest over a delay in the announcement of results. However, some government functionaries and members of the Jakhrani tribe allegedly fired on them resulting in injuries to 17 persons, he added.