EU observers express dissatisfaction over polls in Pakistan

The European Union election observatory team on Wednesday has expressed dissatisfaction over the electoral process of May 11 general elections in Pakistan. The EU team chief Michael Gahler, in a press conference said that the Returning Officers changed the polling staff at the eleventh hour, and the ECP had no record of it. The EU team remained in Pakistan from March 3 to June 4 and has freely prepared a comprehensive report on election process. The team said that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not fulfilled its responsibilities completely during the election and all the candidates were not given equal rights to contest elections. The general elections in Pakistan were held on May 11, 2013 that was won by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N). Almost all the political parties alleged rigging during the elections. A religious political party Jamiat Ullema e Islam Fazal (JUI-F) issued a 'White Paper' recently against the alleged rigging and irregularities in the electoral process. Michael Gahler said that nomination papers of some candidates were rejected from one constituency, while on the other these were accepted and process of preparing results was very slow. He said that allegations of rigging started from the day one of elections adding that ECP should take all the responsibility of election process on its own shoulders.