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| A Pakistani politician rejects his own win, claims vote rigging |
Rehman said he could not accept a victory that was not legitimate, and decided to step down from his seat.
In a rare move, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, a Pakistani politician from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, has renounced his seat in the PS-129 provincial constituency in Karachi, alleging that the vote was manipulated in his favour.
Rehman was declared the winner of PS-129 in the national and provincial elections that took place on February 8, with more than 26,000 votes. However, he said he found out that the votes of his rival, Saif Bari, an independent candidate supported by former Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI party, were slashed from 31,000 to 11,000 in the final tally.
Rehman said he could not accept a victory that was not legitimate, and decided to step down from his seat.
"We will not take any illegitimate win that someone tries to give us," Rehman said on Monday, Feb. 19.
"We respect the public opinion. The winner should win, the loser should lose, and no one should get anything extra."
The elections were plagued by accusations of meddling and fraud, but the Pakistani election commission has rejected these claims.
It is not clear who will fill Rehman's vacated seat in PS-129.
