KOHAT: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers of led by poll candidate Aftab Alam staged a protest rally here on Saturday against the alleged rigging in the elections and demanded re-poll on the PK-80 seat.

The protest was held at the Katchery Chowk, where the PTI workers alleged that the results in the provincial assembly constituency were changed by independent candidate Amjad Afridi who won on the seat.

Later, addressing a news conference at the Kohat Press Club, Aftab Alam alleged that Mr Afridi had purchased the loyalties of the polling staff and the police who did not take action when the PTI ballots were torn.

He further alleged that the police destroyed the footage of the CCTV cameras to hide the harassment and attack on the polling staff. He said Amjad Afridi had been winning elections since 2008 through rigging.

Mr Alam said that they rejected the results and demanded action against the polling staff and expulsion of police involved in rigging from the district within 48 hours, otherwise they would observe a wheel-jam strike on the Rawalpindi road.

Meanwhile, according to the final results of 142 polling stations out of 143 which had been withheld by the Election Commission of Pakistan for two days due to the attack on the polling staff, Amjad Afridi has been declared as winner with 28,711 votes. The PTI candidate Aftab Alam got 26,163 votes and remained runner-up

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2018