PAKISTAN: ELECTION/PROTEST

Headline

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) protests against local bodies election results.

Intro

JI Chief says rigging and an unusual delay in results has marred the second phase of local body elections in Karachi.

Story

STORY:  Hundreds of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists protested in Islamabad on Tuesday (January 17) after their leadership called for countrywide protests against the results of the local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, alleging that the results have been engineered.

“We have seen such blatant post-election rigging for the first time. And it is not acceptable to us,” said  Nasrullah Randhawa, Chief of JI Islamabad.
“Today’s protest is a warning to the government and the Election Commission to immediately announce the election result. They have the records; so do we have the records. If they do not do this, we may march on the Election Commission, we may march against the Sindh government , and we may march against the Federal Government , because this is our mandate, and we should get it,” he added.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday  (January 16) evening finally announced the results of all 235 seats of Karachi division. According to the results, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was victorious with 93 seats while Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) managed to secure 86 seats.
However, the JI leadership refused to accept the result, claiming that that the results shown by party's polling agents clearly show that JI has secured the majority.
Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Sirajul Haq said in a statement that JI has emerged as the leading party during the local body elections.
"We believe that the election results of JI as well as other political parties have been altered. I appeal to the masses and workers to stage protests in major cities of the country," he said.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could only manage to get 40 seats while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got seven.