ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said that the party will challenge the result of PS-11 Larkana by-poll, where the PPP suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidate.
In a series of tweets, the PPP chairman said “We will challenge this rigging at every forum. The truth can’t be hidden. We will expose this selection. We will have a re-election and take back this seat.”
He alleged that the PPP candidate was not even allowed inside the polling stations. “We kept asking ECP to intervene but its malafide intent was apparent in its silence. Despite all this political engineering PPP has reduced the GDA/JUI-F/PTI lead by 5,000 votes in less than a year.”
PPP’s Jameel Ahmed Soomro managed to secure only 26,021 votes against GDA’s Moazzam Ali Khan Abbasi, who received 31,557 votes to retain the seat.
“I’m proud of PPP workers for fighting an honourable election despite immense pressure from the establishment, from pre-poll (rigging) with NAB arresting and sending notices to PPP workers and their families,” Bilawal said in a tweet. The PPP chairman continued “On polling day, Rangers took over the inside of polling stations. Harassed our women voters, threw out our polling agents, and deliberately slowed the polling. Women polling stations where PPP performs well were purposely started hours late.”
“Since morning media was reporting women voters were being threatened to vote for GDA. Despite our pleas, ECP did not take notice,” he added.