LAHORE   -  The Election Commission of Pakistan said Saturday said that it ‘suspects rigging’ in the by-elections for the NA-75 constituency in Daska, Sialkot.

The commission issued a press release on Saturday afternoon to explain the delay and suspension of the by-election results for the NA-75 Daska constituency. 

Earlier, the results of the NA-75 by-poll were withheld on the request of the PML-N’s following a controversy involving23 presiding officers who had allegedly ‘gone missing’ late in the night.

According to police officials, the 23 polling officials had gotten stuck in far-flung areas of the constituency due to fog. In a late-night development, police had retrieved the officers and brought them to the office of the district returning officer, where leaders of PML-N and PTI were also present.

However, the ECP statement noted that several attempts were made to contact the presiding officers, but no response was received from them.

The ECP said the chief election commissioner tried contacting the Punjab Police Inspector General and the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner concerned on receiving information from the district returning officer (DRO) and returning officer (RO) about the presiding officers who had ‘gone missing’. The election commissioner, however, received no response from the police hierarchy.

The Punjab chief secretary was contacted around 3:00am after which he gave assurances of tracing the ‘missing’ presiding officers and polling bags for the NA-75 results, the ECP statement said. Later, he, too, was unavailable and stopped responding. The presiding officers eventually appeared with the polling bags by 6:00am.

The DRO and RO reported that the results of 20 polling stations in the NA-75 by-election are now suspected to have been rigged, so it is not possible to release the final result of the constituency without a full inquiry, the ECP said.

It added that the DRO will send a detailed report on the matter to the ECP. The statement said the ECP had instructed the DRO and RO to conduct a complete inquiry and identify those responsible. They have, meanwhile, been stopped from announcing the initial results for the by-election.

“This matter looks like a weakness of the administration and law enforcement agencies,” the ECP noted in the press statement.