HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has threatened to stage widespread protests if vote recount for NA-230 Badin-II is not completed and results are changed.

Addressing a press conference held at the local press club on Monday, PPP information secretary Maula Bux Chandio said party activists would take to the streets if the PPP demand was not fulfilled.

Dr Fehmida Mirza won the seat defeating PPP candidate Haji Rasool Bux Chandio by a margin of 860 votes. The losing candidate moved an application for a recount, which began on Saturday after the RO’s approval.

Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidate Dr Fehmida Mirza, who had emerged victorious from NA-230 (Badin-II) according to preliminary results of the 2018 polls, is trying to influence the recounting process, returning officer (RO) Arif Rajput complained to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday.

Following a recount of votes polled at just 13 polling stations, the margin of votes between Dr Mirza and Chandio started to decrease, the RO stated in his application to the commission.

When the recount resumed again the next day, the RO claimed that Dr Mirza “started creating nuisance and tried to create hurdle[s] in the recounting process by raising unreasonable and baseless objections ... apparently to avoid the conduct of further recounting proceedings”.

The PPP information secretary appealed to the judiciary and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take notice of the situation as ECP’s reputation was at risk in this regard.

“If results are changed, we will take to the streets; we will not accept them at all,” he warned.

Mr Chandio said that when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and its allies failed to get good results, they resorted to changing the results. He said he had already predicted that the general elections would be rigged as even before the polling, people were being harassed to help the Ladla [PTI chairman Imran Khan] win the elections.

He said leaders and activists of the PPP sacrificed their lives regardless of race, nation, religion, sect etc. He said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari played a role in ensuring sustainable democracy in the country.

Mr Chandio said that despite serious reservations over the elections, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari did not adopt a stance that could cause harm to the democratic process. He said Bilawal also convinced other parties’ leaders not to risk derailment of democracy. “He is a leader who never uses abusive language against any other leader,” he said.

“Whatever was done in the elections, we will speak about it in the parliament, but changed results will not be acceptable at all,” he said.

He said the PPP fell prey to ‘necessity’ and not ‘reconciliation’, and it would not opt for an option that could harm democracy. He said that continual democracy would remove all “dirt and untidiness” in politics after each election in future. He said the PPP performed well in Sindh but it was squeezed and pressured in Punjab.

Answering a question about the loss of Bilawal’s Lyari seat, he said the party would never accept it as “Lyari is and will remain PPP’s stronghold”.

He said that those idols (alluding to Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and his family) who got to elected houses because of the PPP, had begun behaving like gods.

He said people had given their decision in favour of PPP and rejected the GDA and Mirza family due to the rude attitude of Dr [Zulfikar] Mirza.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2018