EC closes its doors to ‘losers’

ISLAMABAD: Heated exchanges between police and local council hopefuls were witnessed as hundreds of candidates who had been defeated in the second phase of the local council elections gathered outside the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat to lodge complaints about rigging on Wednesday.

Police were deployed outside the secretariat to prevent any untoward incidents, and the main gate remained closed, barring candidates from entering the offices of the EC. The candidates said that the local council elections were rigged and that the presiding officers had been bribed into changing the results.

Candidates declared victorious in the unofficial results were found defeated in the official result declarations, they said.

“The EC is not ready to address our grievances, and it seems unable to detect rigging in the polls,” said one of the candidates from Layyah.

Meanwhile, EC sources claimed that thousands of applications against rigging in the local polls had been submitted to the commission. They maintained that the EC would only re-count votes from sensitive areas, but that no re-polling would take place. online

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