Senior Pakistan official says he helped rig elections, will hand himself over to police
- ‘We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats,’ said Liaqat Ali Chattha, commissioner of the city of Rawalpindi
- There have been widespread allegations of rigging after authorities switched off the mobile phone network on election day and the count took over 24 hours
A senior bureaucrat said on Saturday he helped rig Pakistan’s elections, a week after polls marred by allegations of manipulation returned no clear winner.
Liaqat Ali Chattha, commissioner of the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the country’s powerful military has its headquarters, said he would hand himself over to police.
There have been widespread allegations of rigging after authorities switched off the country’s mobile phone network on election day and the count took more than 24 hours.
The army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), short of a majority, has announced a partnership with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and a handful of smaller parties to form the next government.
Chattha said he personally supervised rigging of votes in Rawalpindi, before stepping down from his post.
“We converted the losers into winners, reversing margins of 70,000 votes in 13 national assembly seats,” he told reporters.