Intra-party polls: Rifts intensify among ANP workers in Shangla

Activists say fake registration forms were filed in district-level elections.

SHANGLA: Rifts among Awami National Party’s (ANP) Shangla chapter have intensified after intra-party elections in the district were dismissed as “fake” by most of the party’s activists.

Talking to the media on Tuesday, a former leader of the ANP, Haji Shah Farooq, alleged the current leadership of the party in the district filed fake registration forms on the basis of which they were elected. “A few people in the district have occupied the party and they keep distributing positions among themselves,” he claimed, adding that he felt these people have deceived the party workers and its main leadership.



Farooq added, in Shangla, the ANP leadership takes decisions against the party manifesto which has damaged its reputation. “Only 30 people participated in the re-organisation,” he claimed, alleging the district leadership is hoarding positions.

Farooq said the ANP has a large number of voters in Shangla but due to differences among workers and the district leadership, ANP faced a crushing defeat in the May 2013 general elections. “If this continues, no one will vote for the party’s candidates in future.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2014.