LG polls: K-P government, ECP row intensifies

Election commission responds to local government's minister’s presser

ISLAMABAD: The row between Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government is aggravating as both continue to shift blame to each other for alleged anomalies in last month’s local government elections.

ECP on Monday issued another rejoinder in response to a press conference by Inayatullah Khan, provincial minister for local government, who had blamed ECP for its failure to conduct elections in a transparent manner on May 30.

Khan had claimed that the commission rejected the demand of K-P government to conduct LG polls in phases with the help of biometric system.

ECP in a strongly-worded statement said that the provincial government was on board when it decided to go for manual voting system. “Regarding use of biometric machines, it is clarified that in a meeting of the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak with the election commission, after detailed deliberation on the pros and cons of use of biometric machines, the CM had agreed to conduct LG polls without biometric machines,” the ECP said.

PTI ready for re-polling

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan reiterated on Monday that his party was ready to hold local bodies’ elections again in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa under the supervision of the army.

Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Imran said that the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) government was not asked to resign despite the fact that they were not willing to conduct recount on four constituencies following allegations of rigging the 2013 general elections.

“Why is the KP government being asked to resign now?” he asked. Imran’s statement comes amid protests from opposition parties and allegations of rigging in the recently-held local government polls in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2015.