PPP sit-in against rigging continues in Gilgit

A sit-in staged by the PPP is continuing for the second consecutive day in Gilgit, as the two main opposition parties rejected the November 15 elections results, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

The protesters are demanding their right from the Election Commission with a view that they have evidence of rigging carried out in the polling process held for Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will again join the sit-in at 2pm and address the participants.

On Monday, Bilawal said that his elections had been stolen and the robbery was unacceptable.

My election has been stolen. I will be joining the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in their protest shortly.

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) November 16, 2020

GB pe Daka NaManzoor#VotePeDakaNaManzoor https://t.co/K30RBGjEXp

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) November 16, 2020

Later, he told a press conference in Gilgit that the results were changed overnight and his party's mandate had been stolen. Voting was not held at all polling stations in the GBLA-2 [one of the constituencies in the region’s capital], he added.

Bilawal warned that powers that be must not push his party to take extreme decisions and vowed to continue their protest against rigging.

Earlier, the PPP chairman, in his address to the protesters outside the Gilgit DC’s office, said the authorities panicked after witnessing the public support enjoyed by his party and the Election Commission started supporting illegal acts of the PTI ministers.

The chief election commissioner went to Islamabad and even held a press conference there against the opposition instead of stopping the government ministers, he added.

Bilawal said at least three seats were clearly snatched from the PPP. “We will not allow the puppet, the selected and the selectors to steal the elections. The selectors knew that the PTI does not exist in Gilgit-Baltistan. Everyone knows that people of Gilgit-Baltistan are with the PPP,” he maintained. 

Bilawal said the region’s people had snatched their rights from the Dogra Raj and they would repeat the same against the usurpers. “If the people are not given the snatched seats, they will go to Islamabad and I will lead the protest,” he said.

Also on Monday, PML-N General-Secretary Ahsan Iqbal said, “Rigged election GB [Gilgit-Baltistan] is REJECTED.”

Rigged election in GB is REJECTED.

— Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) November 16, 2020

Addressing a presser in Gilgit, Ahsan said when he visited the chief election commissioner to complaint about pre-poll rigging, the reply was that no one was listening to him.

He had stated in August this year that the federal government had planned political engineering in Gilgit-Baltistan through agencies, the PML-N leader recalled.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique on Tuesday said the question was where the votes of thousands of people attending the party rallies had gone after being polled.

https://twitter.com/KhSaad_Rafique/status/1328594408682512387