CEC admits voting process too complicated: PML-N

By Shahzad Raza

ISLAMABAD: Justice Abdul Hameed, the acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) admitted that the election process was too complicated for voters to understand, said Muhammad Siddiqul Farooq, information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Sunday. He told Daily Times that he had met with the CEC and had advised him to resign.

“The local government election system is very complicated. It is very difficult for illiterate voters to cast their vote when there are so many ballot papers to stamp,” said the PML-N leader, quoting the CEC.

The party claimed that the CEC could clarify his position by not becoming a part of the alleged rigging conducted by the government during the local council elections.

Farooq said the CEC did not respond to this statement, maintaining that the elections were held in a free and fair manner.

The PML-N leader said that the CEC was an honest individual, but the government had weakened his position. He said that the Election Commission’s staff could not speak out against the rigging, since they feared a backlash from the government.

He claimed that ruling-party candidates countrywide were provided with 500 to 700 ballot papers so that they could cast fake votes to increase their chances of winning.

“Had there been free and fair elections, the ruling-party candidates might not have received more than five percent of the seats,” he said, adding that police officials were involved in the casting of bogus votes.

The PML-N leader criticised Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s recent statement that unsuccessful candidates should move the courts if they thought they had lost because of rigging, saying that it was the government’s responsibility to hold transparent elections in the country. He added that an opposition member had no access to justice in Pakistan.

Home | National