ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Monday rejected the allegations about massive rigging in the General Election 2024 and said that the delay in announcing the results didn’t mean a massive rigging.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, PM Kakar said that due to the disruption of internet signals due to security concerns, the relevant staff faced issues in gathering the votes.
“We could afford delay, but not the terrorist attacks. The delay does not mean rigging,” the Prime Minister said. He added that after facing defeat by major stalwarts of PML-N, including Rana Sanaullah, Khwaja Saad Rafiq, and Javed Latif, the allegations of rigging on the party didn’t make sense.
The Prime Minister said such delays also happened in other countries, including Sweden and Indonesia, but one takes such delays as a major rigging. “We are a country of 240 million with 92,000 polling stations. This entire process had to take some time”, he said.
PM Kakar further added that in the General Election 2018, the process of the entire result-gathering consumed about 66 hours, but in 2024, it was completed in 36 hours. However, the official Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) deadline was around nine hours, he said.
براہِ راست: نگران وزیراعظم انوار الحق کاکڑ کی اہم پریس کانفرنس https://t.co/FsOtKWrxg8
— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) February 12, 2024
Allegations About General Election
Meanwhile, leaders from different Political parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaati-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), and some other small parties have accused the Election Commission of Pakistan for the intentional delay to favor the favorites.
Workers and supporters of these parties have initiated protest demonstrations and sit-ins across the country. In addition, some political leaders, including JI Chief Siraj-ul-Haq, IPP head Jahangir Tareen, and ANP leader Amir Haider Khan Hoti, have stepped down from their party positions after facing defeats in the election.
