Pakistan: ECP ‘report’ confirms PPP’s reservations on 2013 polls

http://www.ppp.org.pk/

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo has said that reservations raised by the PPP leadership regarding the dubious role of returning officers (ROs) during the 2013 general elections have been confirmed by a “report” released recently by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

In a statement on Tuesday, Wattoo said that the ECP report had damaged the credibility of entire process of the last general elections. The PML-N would now lose its legal and moral authority of having mandate of the people, he added.

He observed that the ECP had listed in the report multiple factors responsible for “electoral mess created by the ROs.” He further said that the system for tabulation of election results was out of order, ballot papers were not received on time, staff was not trained for the use of magnetic ink and above all the ROs changed the polling staff in the nick of time.

Wattoo observed that legitimacy of the government was in jeopardy as a consequence that could only be addressed by seeking fresh mandate from the electorate. He said that PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto would also unfold the extent of rigging in 2013 general elections from Karachi to Khyber on October 18 when he would address a party meeting at Karsaz, Karachi, the day when terrorists tried to assassinate Benazir Bhutto when she was leading a mammoth procession after arrival in Karachi from Dubai seven yeas ago on October 18, 2007.

He recalled that during a meeting with TV anchorpersons in Karachi a few days after the 2013 elections, the then president and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that ‘ROs were responsible for the electoral debacle inflicted on the PPP, adding how it is possible that the support of the party evaporated with the start of borders of south Punjab up to Attock and returned with the commencement of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa frontiers.’

He said that the PPP leadership decided to accept the results only for the sake of continuity of democracy in the country because party leaders and its workers had rendered ultimate sacrifices for the cause of constitution and democracy. After the ECP report has been made public, he said, the party would reconsider its position, as stand of the party on May 2013 elections would become exceedingly difficult to defend in the future.