Clean chit: No re-polls in Shangla

SHANGLA:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced re-polls will not be conducted in Shangla as local government elections were conducted in a transparent manner.

According to a notification issued on Saturday, the ECP declared the LG results in Shangla were “clean and clear”.  It added, “The results cannot be disputed as the polls were conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.”

Polling was conducted in 28 district councils, 28 tehsil councils and 105 village councils on May 30. At least 13 candidates from PML-N, five from ANP, two from PTI, two from PPP, two from AJIP and one from JUI-F won the polls.

On June 24, ECP announced incomplete results 25 days after K-P voted in local representatives. Many results were withheld and by-polls will be held on 4,000 seats. Following the announcement, ECP decided to hold re-polls in at least 365 polling stations where large-scale irregularities had been witnessed. The re-polls will be held on July 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2015.