LAHORE, Aug 30: The Punjab PPP on Tuesday directed its divisional presidents to make preparations for the third phase of the local elections, iterating that the polls held on Aug 18 and 25 were ‘brutally’ rigged.

The party’s provincial executive committee, which met under the chairmanship of Qasim Zia, noted that there were divisions in the ruling PML which could be better exploited by taking part in the final round of the local polls.

Information secretary Naveed Chaudhry briefed the reporters on the decisions. Central deputy information secretary Altaf Qureshi and media adviser Iqbal Sialvi were also present.

Naveed said the PPP had already filed 100 election petitions in southern Punjab and the party had directed all district organizations to move courts where the code of conduct had been violated.

The meeting, he said, rejected the local poll results. However, he said, a decision on launching a movement would be taken by the ARD due to meet in Islamabad on Sept 3.

When he was reminded that the Sindh PPP had already decided to start agitation from Aug 31 (Wednesday), Naveed said the decision had been taken before the ARD’s Aug 29 meeting.

The PPP leader alleged that the election results had been changed on a large scale and those who were winning by night woke up to listen that they had been defeated by their rivals.

He criticized the role being played by the acting chief election commissioner.

Answering a question, he said any election conducted by the present rulers could not be expected to be free and fair.

He invited the attention of the US State Department and the human rights organizations to the manipulations used by the ruling party to win the polls.