Daily Times

National and Sindh Assembly candidates of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) from Sanghar district alleged that deployment of volunteers in women polling stations on July 25 was a part of planned rigging.

“Volunteers have been handed over bogus ballot papers with stamps on candidates from a particular party. For this purpose million of rupees have been distributed among volunteers, they claimed.

This they said while speaking to press conference at district headquarters. Those who attended the press conference included Haji Khuda Bux Rajar, Ali Ghulam Nizamani, Waryam Faqqeer and Jam Zulfiqar.

Speaking on the occasion, Jam Zulfiqar said that administration did not take GDA into confidence while making decisions regarding deployment of volunteers.

The GDA leader said that volunteers were deployed by the administration under the pretext of maintaining discipline but they were not needed in the presence of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) “In the presence of troops of Pakistan Army, Rangers and other law enforcers there was no need to deploy such volunteers,” said Jam Zulfiqar.

“Had there been no deployment of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), we would have supported the deployment of volunteers,” Jam added.

Jam who is contesting from PS-43, said that around 1000 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and lady health workers had been deployed as volunteers. “We have also heard that volunteers would also be deployed at men’s polling stations,” he added. “I am bringing this in the knowledge of all stakeholders. Volunteers have been handed over bogus ballot papers. A lot of money has been distributed among the volunteers in all of Sanghar’s constituencies within the last 48 hours. This is planned rigging,” Zulfiqar insisted.

While demanding the removal of volunteers from polling stations at earliest, Jam said “If the volunteers are not removed, we will have no choice but to say that district administration and all other stakeholders are involved in the planed rigging.”

He said although there were Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras had been installed in 477 polling stations to check if rigging was happening, an equal number of polling stations do not have such cameras. “Also CCTV cameras have been installed inside polling stations but these volunteers will be deployed outside,” he claimed.

Jam Zulfiqar, in response to a query about whether GDA would accept the election results if the volunteers were not removed responded that final decision would be made by party leadership.

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th 2018.