Rigging allegations: Hearing of petitions seeking re-election in Cantt on May 14

Two PML-N, a PTI and an independent candidate have claimed rigging and sought re-polls.

LAHORE: District and Sessions Judge Tariq Iftikhar Ahmed has fixed petitions seeking re-election in four Lahore Cantonment Board wards for preliminary hearing on May 14 (tomorrow).

The petitioners have submitted that the elections in these wards were rigged. They have requested the court to declare these elections null and void and issue directions for re-polling. They have also sought verification of voters’ list by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

Two of the four petitions were filed by candidates who contested the election on a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ticket. One each was filed by a Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf and an independent candidate.

Petitioners Javed Zameer Ahmed and Muhammad Iqbal, who lost elections in Wards 5 and 3, respectively, requested the court to declare void the election of Shehzad Hussain (in Ward 5) and Rasheed Ahmed (in Ward 3) and order a re-poll. They submitted that Hussain and Ahmed, who won the election on PTI tickets, had rigged the election.

Petitioner Ahmed stated that a returning officer had allegedly included rejected ballots in the final count. Further, he said PTI activists at various polling stations had prevented his polling agents from entering the premises. He also accused his PTI opponent of violating the code of conduct by understating his assets.

Petitioner Iqbal accused PTI’s Ahmed of spending Rs10 million during his election campaign in Ward 3.  He said there were reports that some voters caste multiple ballots. Complaints were also received about people casting ballots without being registered in the ward, he added.

In his petition seeking a direction for de-notification of Rana Tanveer’s election as councillor in Ward 7, Chaudhary Muhammad Umar Akbar, who contested the election on a PTI ticket, submitted that no action had been taken by the election commission or the returning officers on his complaints about bogus entries in the voters’ list. He said his campaign team had found that the voters’ lists included a number of people who were no longer residing in the ward.

Further, he said polling stations 7 and 8 were established next to the PML-N candidate’s election offices. He added that his agents were stopped from entering these premises.

Chaudhary Akbar’s other allegations against the PML-N candidate included violation of the campaign spending limit and parliamentarians’ visits to the area.

He said the PML-N candidate had spent Rs25,000,000 on his election campaign (a candidate is allowed up to Rs200,000 under the rules). He added that Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique and MPA Yaseen Sohal had attended the PML-N candidates’ campaign rallies.

Independent candidate Bilal Aslam submitted that he had found at least 1,500 bogus entries in the voters’ lists in ward 9.

His other complaints were about Rafique and MPA Mian Naseer’s presence at campaign rallies and establishment of polling stations in private schools owned by PML-N supporters.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2015.