PPP, JI claim to win more seats in Karachi LG polls.

KARACHI -- More than two days after polling in Karachi's local government elections ended on Sunday evening, the contesting parties were still unsure about their mandate, with an official of the electoral watchdog in Sindh asserting that it might take another day to finalise the results.

In Islamabad, however, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday rejected as baseless the rigging allegations and insisted that accusations of delayed results were unfounded.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), which secured 86 seats according to results of Karachi's all 235 union councils (UCs) announced on Monday, claimed a day later that it had won three more seats.

Similarly, the PPP claimed that its candidate in the union council No. 6 of Chanesar Town had been declared as the winner after a recount. The seat was earlier bagged by JI.

Without denying or confirming these claims, a spokesperson for the provincial election commission said the results were still being finalised, with chances of change in the party position shared on Monday evening.

'After the results are compiled by the presiding officers and polling staff, they go through a final scan under the returning officer,' said ECP official Ali Asghar Sial.

'So, by Monday night, the provisional results were announced, but they still had to go through the final process,' he said.

'That final process would hopefully be completed tonight [Tuesday] or early tomorrow [Wednesday]. I don't know what the parties are claiming, but there are chances of change in party position once the results are finalised.'

With its fresh claims, the JI now further grew its position from Monday night's 86 to 89, bringing the PPP number down to 90 from 93. A JI spokesperson said the party was formally informed by the ECP about the three more UCs - two in the West and one in the East district - after a recount where the PPP had been earlier declared winner 'illegally' on Monday night.

The JI fresh win came after it went with an aggressive approAach, staging a sit-in outside the office of the deputy commissioner of West district. Several party workers, including women and children, were among the protesters, demanding 'fair results' of the Jan 15 vote.

'After these three UCs, there are six more where we have won, but the PPP was declared as the...