Major political parties protest against Pakistan election results

Major political parties have held protests in Islamabad against alleged vote rigging in the general elections held on 25 July.

EPA/T. MUGHAL Source: EPA

Party members from opposition parties including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and National Party (NP) held protests outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) office in Islamabad.

Protesters claimed alleged vote rigging during the General Elections in Pakistan that took place last month on 25 July 2018.

They called for the head of the elections oversight body to step down following allegations of fraud and irregularities in last month's elections.

Credit: EPA/T. MUGHAL Source: EPA

Various leaders and workers walked towards the election commission building and chanted slogans “Stop stealing of vote! Stop stealing of vote! Shame on Election Commission."

Ahsan Iqbal, Former Interior Minister and newly elected lawmaker from PML-N said,

"We are here to stage a protest and to highlight to Election Commission that they have failed in their duty and to also show to the people of Pakistan and to the world that this mandate of Imran Khan is a stolen mandate, it is a mandate which is an engineered mandate.”

“It is a mandate which is based on the worst pre-poll rigging. This is not acceptable."

Pakistan people's party lawmaker and opposition leader in Senate, Sherry Rehman said,

"The manner this election was conducted, the mass scale of rigging, the way RTS (result transmission system) mysteriously stopped overnight, the way our polling agents were removed when the counting was done."

Credit: EPA/T. MUGHAL Source: EPA

President of Majlis-e-Muttahida Amal and Chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam(JUI-F), Maulana Falz-ur-Rahman and his party workers also joined the protest.

Speaking to the protestors, Mr Rahman said, "The only reason why all political parties have joined hands today is because the ECP failed to conduct free and fair elections."

PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif was not part of the protest. According to PML-N’s spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, the party president was unable to fly to Islamabad from Lahore due to bad weather.