ECP asks parties to accept people’s mandate

ISLAMABAD: While rejecting the All Parties Conference demand of resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Babar Yaqoob has asked the political parties to accept mandate of the people after the elections.

At a presser, he said, “The ECP expresses its sadness over the APC statement regarding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner. We reject and strongly condemn it as the July 25 polls were held in a free, fair and transparent manner.”

He said that issuing of such a statement by the political parties without any evidence was unfortunate and against reality. The secretary said, “till to date no rigging complaint had been registered with ECP throughout the country”.

He said that not respecting people of the country’s mandate due to personal interest is against the basic principles of democracy. “If any candidate has complaints then these will be dealt with as per the law and complaints should be filed according to the Constitution.”

He said, “We expect all candidates whether they won or lost to respect people’s mandate and not only accept the results but strengthen the democratic process.”

Yaqoob said, “If any candidate has complaints then they will be dealt with as per the law and complaint should be filed in line with the Constitution. We took measures to provide a level playing field to all parties.” He said in any respectable nation and developed country, demand against the law was considered unconstitutional.

He said that acting upon Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) petition, the electoral body requested the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to not arrest political leaders till the polls were over, Yaqoob said, “Elections were postponed in NA-60 after disqualification of PML-N candidate.”

ECP decided to postpone polls in NA-60, Rawalpindi constituency following PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi’s sentence to ensure that all parties have a level playing field, he reminded.  He said that the ECP had also taken notice of stopping the rallies of political parties and ordered for the enquiry of the incidents.

Yaqoob further said, “One can ascertain that the 2018 General Election was transparent by noting that polls were concluded on time in most parts of the country and the voters’ turnout stood at 52%.”

He said that all the material related to the election had been timely delivered to all the polling stations and about 800,000 people were imparted comprehensive training for the holding of election. He said that comprehensive code of conduct had been issued with the consultation of political parties.

He said that a control room set up in the ECP worked round the clock to address the grievances of candidates and it had received about 674 complaints. “All the complaints were addressed immediately,” he added. He said that action had been taken over 100 applications of the candidates.

He said that the ECP was analyzing the Result Transmission System (RTS) and the report will be shared.