Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has rejected the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision to retain senate election results of general seats from Balochistan and announced moving Supreme Court as well as putting the case before the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
Speaking at a news conference here at Punjab House on Monday, PML-N's Balochistan leaders including MNA Abdul Qadir Baloch and Sanaullah Zehri alleged that Senate elections in the province were massively rigged. They accused the government of using state machinery and resources saying that each vote in Balochsitan was purchased at a huge amount of Rs 650 million. They also alleged that the voters were also pressurised and not allowed to exercise their right to vote freely.
Qadir Balcoh said that "rigging" in the Senate elections had created doubts about the transparency of the upcoming general elections. Referring to the technical fault that led to withholding of Senate election results from Balochistan, he said that under rule 31, the intention of the candidate is considered. The PML-N voters, after committing mistake on the ballot paper, sought another paper to rectify it. But their request was not considered whereas a similar vote of the PPP was considered correct.
In Balochistan, he said that 63 voters took part in the voting for 10 candidates. The vote cast by a member to PML-N's candidate Nawab Shah put stamp on his name instead of the box and the winning candidate scored 7.42 points. Had the disputed vote been considered correct, the PML-N's candidate would have secured 8.42 points, he added.
He also accused the Chief Election Commissioner Balochistan of being biased. Speaking on the occasion, Zehri said that the PML-N's legal experts' stance was not considered and the previous election results were maintained without the process of recounting. "Without hearing our point of view, the election commissioner announced what was directed from the high ups," he alleged.