<\/p>\n
Meher Bokhari urges CEC Raja to resign, while Zarrar Khuhro says all evidence points to one logical conclusion.<\/p>\n
Despite the suspension of cellular service, internet outage, sporadic violence and complaints of mismanagement \u2014 including delayed starts at some polling stations \u2014 Pakistanis voted in general elections 2024 on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the polls, Chief Election Commission (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja had assured that the watchdog had an \u201cexclusive and independent networking system\u201d, and that there would be no delay in election results.<\/p>\n
However, the claim of its Election Management System (EMS) being up to the mark fell flat as the ECP took more than nine hours to release the first results and has continued to operate at snail\u2019s pace since then amid allegations of rigging from PTI-backed candidates.<\/p>\n
The delay evoked memories of 2018 when EMS\u2019 precursor and much ridiculed Result Transmission System (RTS) had crashed, delaying results and raising eyebrows. A repeat of the same meant that CEC Raja earned the wrath of all and sundry, including political experts.<\/p>\n
After the 2am deadline for returning officers (ROs) to submit Form 47s lapsed and the CP issued a warning, journalist Meher Bokhari, in a post on X, said that the CEC Raja should resign himself if he did not know what was happening. \u201cForget action against ROs. CEC should resign himself now if he doesn\u2019t know what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawn News<\/em> journalist Zarrar Khuhro, in a post on X, implied that \u201cunexpected delays, mobile blockage, and the \u2018missing chairman\u2019 were evidence of dark arts at work, \u201cunless one believes every RO is incompetent and cannot count\u201d.<\/p>\n Senior journalist Hamid Mir said it was the ECP\u2019s responsibility to release all the results by 10am today, adding that the watchdog had \u201ccompletely failed in fulfilling its responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n Another senior journalist, Syed Talat Hussain, said the 2024 election was a crucial moment in the country\u2019s history but rued that delayed results turned it into a \u201cfarce.\u201d<\/p>\n He described the alleged denial of Forms 45 \u2014 a form filled by the polling station presiding officers carrying details of votes secured by candidates \u2014 to key candidates as a \u201cscandal\u201d, questioning the transparency of the electoral process.<\/p>\n Senior Journalist Mazhar Abbas said that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) created history against all odds, and urged the democrats to accept it.<\/p>\n Analyst Khurram Husain commended PTI voters for their \u201cspirit of defiance\u201d despite \u201call attempts to keep them down\u201d.<\/p>\n Journalist Amber Shamsi said that PTI voters have \u201cdemonstrated the power of vote despite oppression and challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n She also said that the openness with which the delays in results were being discussed on TV was \u201cone of the positives\u201d.<\/p>\n Sunday Times\u2019<\/em> chief foreign correspondent Christina Lamb said the election results suggested that things were not \u201cgoing as planned\u201d for the powers that be.<\/p>\n She said that despite being in jail and his part\u2019s election symbol taken away, Imran\u2019s independents were in a \u201cshock lead\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meher Bokhari urges CEC Raja to resign, while Zarrar Khuhro says all evidence points to one logical conclusion. Despite the suspension of cellular service, internet outage, sporadic violence and complaints of mismanagement \u2014 including delayed starts at some polling stations \u2014 Pakistanis voted in general elections 2024 on Thursday. Ahead of the polls, Chief Election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/09203254654e2f4.png?r=203323","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ECP has completely failed: Hamid Mir<\/h2>\n
Delay turned historical moment into a farce: Syed Talal Hussain<\/h2>\n
PTI lauded for \u2018spirit of defiance\u2019, demonstrating \u2018power of vote\u2019<\/h2>\n
Things not going as planned: foreign observer<\/h2>\n