‘Why are you afraid of power of the vote’: Maryam Nawaz to Imran Khan over poll rigging

Lashing out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over the Daska by-election rigging, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz on Monday taunted the government and asked why Khan is scared of the “power of the vote”.

Taking to Twitter, Maryam warned that measures such as the alleged Daska by-election rigging and “breakdown of the RTS system” will not be tolerated again.

“Why are you afraid of the power of the vote,” she asked.

The PML-N leader stated it had been proven again that the Constitution was superior to “conspiratorial ordinances” and “references based on ill intentions”.

Maryam had last week called Imran Khan “vote-thief” and accused government agencies of rigging the elections. This comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had said in a statement that it suspected that the results of 20 polling stations were falsified.

The by-election in the NA-75 constituency for the National Assembly was marred by violence at a polling station in the Daska constituency.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Pakistan said that the upcoming Senate elections cannot be held via open balloting.

However, the court also held that the secrecy of the ballot is not “absolute” and can be diluted by practical considerations, especially those that relate to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) exercising its mandate to conduct free-and-fair elections that are devoid of any corrupt practices.

Regarding the secrecy of the ballot, the Supreme Court had referred to a precedent in which it had held that the secrecy of the ballot is not absolute and that “the secrecy of the ballot […] has not to be implemented in the ideal or absolute sense, but to be tempered by practical considerations necessitated by the processes of election”.

The apex court said it is up to the ECP to decide to which extent the voting should remain secret.