Disputed mandate: Election petition not impacted by Cantt poll results, says PTI leader

‘Local government elections cannot be compared with general elections’.

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf leader Hamid Khan has disagreed with the suggestion that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s performance in the city’s Cantonment board elections has weakened his party’s case that the PML-N rigged the NA-125 election in 2013.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Khan said local government elections could not be compared with general elections.

He said candidates contesting local elections on the ruling party’s tickets had an advantage in such elections. He said voters expected ruling party candidates to be more successful in attracting development funds to their areas and, therefore, prefer them over opposition and independent candidates.

Khan said his party’s choice of candidates in the two Cantonment boards could also have had an impact on the election outcome. He said party supporters might have abstained from voting or voted against the party because they did not agree with its choice of a candidate.

According to the unofficial results available on Saturday, PML-N had won in 14 out of the 20 wards in the two Cantonment Boards in the city. PTI had managed to win five wards. In general elections of 2013, Khan had polled 84,495 votes in NA-125 against PML-N candidate Khawaja Saad Rafique’s 123,416 votes. However, his party had refused to accept the result and accused the PML-N of rigging the election. PTI’s election petition against Rafique is being heard by an election tribunal.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2015.