ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that a post-election report recently issued by the Election Commission confirms his party's longstanding stance of widespread rigging in the 2013 general elections.
The report holds returning officers (ROs) responsible for the mess created in various constituencies, claiming that the officers taken from the lower judiciary amended the polling scheme during the last few days before the general elections, causing confusion among polling staff, voters and other stakeholders.
They also changed polling staff at the last minute, replacing trained staff with inexperienced personnel, said the report.
The PTI has been leading ongoing anti-government demonstrations for over 40 days in protest against alleged rigging in the 2013 polls.
Related: ECP blames ROs for election mess
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad today, Qureshi said the ECP report was "a charge-sheet" which proved the 2013 polls were “substantially rigged”, as claimed by the PTI.
The ECP might have used “mild language”, said Qureshi, but it has acknowledged the PTI's stance that massive irregularity took place in the polls.
Qureshi said the report confirms several claims made by the PTI, including irregularities in printing of ballot papers, failure of results tabulation system, the failure of the ECP’s scrutiny cell, and manipulation in posting of election staff at the eleventh hour.
