PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, while addressing a press conference in Lahore late on Wednesday, expressed strong reservations over the polling process, saying his party doesn’t accept the preliminary results shared by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
“I am forced to say that we completely reject these results,” he declared, alleging that there has been a “blatant violation of public’s mandate”.
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) wholly rejects the results of General Elections 2018 due to manifest & massive irregularities. Form 45 was not given to our agents, results were stopped & votes were counted in the absence of our poll agents. This is both unbearable & unacceptable!
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) July 25, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
He complained that Form-45 was not shared with the agents of PML-N in many constituencies.
According to the ECP website, the first Form 45 is the ‘Result of the Count’ showing the number of valid votes for each contesting candidate and ballot papers excluded from the count.
“There were long queues today despite the extremely hot weather. But when the polling ended, I saw a very scary situation,” he said.
“By 7pm, when results started to pour in, no result was announced from constituencies in Lahore. We received complaints from across the country that polling agents were not given Form-45 and were being expelled from the polling stations,” he alleged.
“I am calling a CEC session immediately and we will announce a new plan of action as soon as possible. We are contacting other political parties having similar complaints. We will provide a proper plan of action after we consult with them,” the PML-N president said.
Shahbaz showed some copies of what he said were Form-45 received from polling stations in constituencies of Khawaja Asif, Tehmina Daultana and other PML-N leaders, alleging that they were incomplete.
“Awais Leghari also complained that polling agents were being thrown out,” he added.
The PML-N president said they believed in democracy and “would have accepted people’s mandate, whatever it would have been”. But he complained that the “public mandate is being disrespected which is intolerable”.
Shahbaz termed it the dirtiest election in the history of Pakistan. “The first step was pre-poll rigging, then the polling was slowed down and no extension was given. And when the time for counting arrived, our polling agents were thrown out.”
