The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is in the driving seat as the much-awaited results of Karachi’s local body elections came in, with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) trailing behind, unofficial results showed Monday.
The delay in the release of results — despite the polling being closed at 5pm on Sunday — had prompted rigging allegations from the opposition parties — Jamat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F).
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) claimed that the results were compiled in a transparent manner, while the PPP-led government also denied its involvement in rigging the polls.
Out of the 235 union committees (UCs) up for grabs, PPP leads with victories on 93 UCs, JI has secured second place with 86, PTI 40, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seven, JUI-F and independent three, while the Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) two.
The voting which kicked off at 8am on Sunday — continued uninterrupted with reports of sporadic clashes — ended at 5pm on the same day, but the results were not released, prompting rigging claims.
As hundreds of thousands of people headed to vote in a bid to elect their local representatives, many political parties had also earlier complained and demanded the ECP to increase the polling time as the process began late at some of the stations — which was accepted in some polling stations.
Analysts said that despite the process of elections being the responsibility of the election commission, it would raise questions if the PPP wins the polls in Karachi since it is the ruling party.
PTI also suffered a major setback in Karachi local bodies polls when Khurram Sher Zaman — who was considered the party’s candidate for the top slot of the mayor — lost to PPP’s Najmi Alam in Saddar.
