UMERKOT: Amid low turnout and allegations of rigging, Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Saba Talpur on Thursday won the by-election on a National Assembly seat (NA-213) that fell vacant after the demise of her husband Nawab Yousuf Talpur.

According to unofficial and unconfirmed results, the PPP candidate secured 164,788 votes against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed opposition alliance candidate Lal Chand Malhi, who got 81,247 votes.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed his gratitude to the people of Umerkot for expressing their confidence in the party candidate.

Though the PPP has won by a huge margin of about 80,000 votes, the electoral victory is besmirched with opposition parties’ allegations of pre- and post-polls rigging, widespread electoral malpractices, casting of bogus votes and misuse of state machinery to ensure the ruling party’s win.

Opposition rejects results

Lal Malhi, the joint candidate of opposition parties’ alliance Save Indus River Movement, rejected the result of the by-election and alleged that PPP had colluded with presiding officers, polling staff and District Returning Officer to get ballots stamped in favour of the party’s electoral symbol, the arrow.

Ruling party’s Saba Talpur clinches victory against PTI-GDA candidate with a margin of 80,000 votes

He told a hurriedly-called press conference after election that a citywide shutter-down strike would be observed on Friday (today) against rigging in election.

Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan’s candidate Pir Umar Jan Sarhandi denounced the entire voting process, calling it “selection, not election,” and questioned the need for wasting public’s time and resources on a sham election with a pre-decided outcome.

“This [election] is a stain on the face of democracy and deserves the strongest condemnation,” echoed Malhi and Sarhandi in their statements.

Malhi said: “The Election Commission of Pakistan has failed to conduct free, fair and transparent election. [The commission did not ensure] deployment of Rangers and military personnel. Our voters and polling agents were assaulted. We will register cases against all those who were involved in rigging and abuse of authority.”

PPP MPA Taimur Talpur defended his party in a statement, dismissing all allegations levelled by the rivals. Though opposition parties had accused him of issuing threats to their supporters, Mr Talpur instead blamed Malhi’s supporters for attacking his voters.

He alleged that they spread terror among PPP voters to get the polling stopped.

Turnout remains low

Voters’ turnout remained low, partly due to intense heat and partly because a large portion of voters were daily wagers who worked in garment factories, as domestic servants and farm workers out of the district and probably could not make it to the polling stations.

There were reports of clashes at several polling stations, resulting in minor injuries to a number of people. The wounded were rushed to local hospitals for treatment.

Despite scuffles at some polling stations, causing temporary suspension of voting, polling remained largely peaceful though slower and unnecessarily cumbersome due to officials’ inefficiency.

Meanwhile, Malhi accompanied by hundreds of his supporters reached the DRO office where they observed a sit-in, turning the atmosphere in Umerkot volatile.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2025