Level-playing field given to all parties in polls: ECP

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday asserted that all political parties were given a level-playing field in the just-concluded general elections in the country held on July 25.

ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob was quoted by Geo News as saying, "We took measures to provide a level playing field to all parties."

Yaqoob reiterated that there were no reports of rigging and the polls were conducted in a free and fair manner.

Lamenting on political parties' demand for resignation of the chief election commissioner, he stated, "If any candidate has complaints then they will be dealt with as per the law, and complains should be filed in line with the Constitution. 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."

Asserting again that the elections were transparent, Yaqoob noted, "One can ascertain that the 2018 General Election was transparent by noting that polls were concluded on time in most parts of the country."

The ECP secretary underscored that all the people of Pakistan freely exercised their franchise and the total voter turnout stood at 52 per cent, as per the Geo News report.

Yaqoob said that a large number of women had participated in the polling process for the first time.

He further said, "For the first time in the country's history, a survey was conducted in 85,000 polling stations and provincial governments were asked to facilitate people."

The PTI emerged as the single largest party with 116 seats, after the ECP on July 28 released the complete preliminary results for 270 of 272 National Assembly (NA) constituencies.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which won 64 seats came second, while the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) bagged 43 seats and finished third.

Pakistan went to polls on July 25 and the counting of votes began soon thereafter in the evening, which was marred by tedious counting and allegations of rigging by major political parties, including the PML-N and PPP.