The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday rejected the tentative election results for 24 seats of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, noting that the opposition party in the centre would soon announce schedule of a protest demonstration in the region against alleged massive pre-poll and polling day rigging. The PTI also demanded complete re-election in a constituency in Astore.
PTI Chairman Condemns Election Process
“We reject the entire process, this election, its counting, and its results,” said Chairman PTI Gohar Ali Khan while addressing a press conference here. He added that candidates having fake mandate in many constituencies had been declared as returned candidates. The chairman PTI said that his party would issue a white paper on the election process in the coming days.
“We not only condemn this process, but we plan to hold a protest demonstration and strike in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB),” he said, adding that the schedule for the protest would be announced after consulting with their allied parties. He said the PTI would observe black day when the members of the Legislative Assembly would be taking oaths of their seats.
Allegations of Pre-Poll Rigging
Gohar told reporters that his party was barred from campaigning in the days leading to the general election in the region. “We were kept out of the election process,” he said, calling it a pre-poll rigging and an orchestrated plan to keep a party away from the democratic process. He said that 19 PTI-backed independent candidates and three Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) candidates were contesting election on 22 seats of GB Assembly. He claimed that two PTI-backed independents in two constituencies from Hunza and Gilgit and their ally MWM’s candidate from Skardu were leading.
Claims of Victory Conversion
He said PTI and MWM backed candidates were winning 100 per cent of eight seats including one seat each in Astore, Diamer and Ghizer and two seats in Nagar. He added that they were deprived of five seats by converting their “victory into defeat”. “Rigging was committed on Polling Day. Votes were stuffed. Bogus votes were polled,” said the PTI chairman. He underlined that rigging was committed especially in the Rahmanpur Union Council of Astore. “We have demanded repolling there,” he said.
Decision on Independent Candidates
He said that PTI would take a final decision soon about its two independent candidates as to which party they should join. He said that PTI and MWM jointly had the right to one each seat reserved for women and technocrats on the basis of their three general seats. “We demand both reserved seats,” he said.
Opposition Alliance Condemns GB Elections
Separately, the opposition alliance Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP) held a consultative meeting under the chairmanship of the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai. In a statement, the meeting condemned efforts aimed at “keeping PTI out of the democratic process” in the GB elections. The alliance, rejecting the results, called these elections an “action replay” of the 2024 general elections.
