Protests erupt across Sindh over alleged poll rigging

JUI-F's Fazal calls for widespread protests on February 11

HYDERABAD:

A day after the election results were announced, protests erupted in several districts of Sindh on Saturday, as losing candidates and their political parties alleged irregularities in the vote counting system. The Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has called for widespread protests on February 11.

Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro, the provincial leader of JUI-F, led a sit-in outside a temporary office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Sukkur district on Saturday. Soomro claimed that the results were manipulated to favour the Pakistan Peoples Party and warned of blocking the National Highway at 28 different locations in Sindh from Karachi to Kashmore. He set a deadline of 8am on February 11 for the ECP to accept their demands.

Soomro demanded the issuance of Form 47 declaring JUI-F's Mubeen Ahmed as the winner from Sukkur and other candidates from their respective constituencies in the districts of Larkana division. Close contests were observed in some constituencies of Larkana division between the PPP and JUI-F. The PPP secured NA-191 Jacobabad with a slim margin of around 3,000 votes against JUI-F's Shahzain Khan, who garnered 100,652 votes.

In Badin district, candidates from the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), led by former speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza and former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, along with their supporters, held a sit-in protest at DC Chowk. Dr Zulfiqar alleged organised rigging through the District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) in these elections, accusing the PPP of imposing mafias in the guise of elected representatives on the people of Badin.

Meanwhile, in Dadu district, former Sindh chief minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi, fighting on GDA's ticket, accused the ROs of rigging the polling outcomes. Jatoi lost both his seats, NA-227 and PS-81, to his PPP rivals, claiming that rigging occurred, and his supporters and polling agents were assaulted in many places. Another GDA candidate from Dadu on PS-82, Aashiq Ali Zaunr, asserted having evidence of rigging which he plans to submit before the tribunal.

Even the PPP faced protests against alleged rigging. Ali Muhammad Sahito and Abdul Jabbar Khan, the party's contestants from NA-219 and PS-62 in Hyderabad, blocked Hyderabad bypass in protest late on Friday night, burning tires and disrupting traffic. They alleged unjustified delays in announcing results for their constituencies and NA-220 and PS-64, accusing the changes to favour MQM-P.

In Mirpurkhas, supporters of independent candidate Salamat Lakho reportedly assaulted presiding staff with batons at polling station number 313 at Iqra Higher Secondary School on Friday. The presiding officer, Ali Hassan Panhwar, lodged a complaint with the Satellite police station on Saturday, nominating Lakho and his supporters for attacking them with batons and axes.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th 2024.