RAWALPINDI: Five days after the LG elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) could still not announce the official results of the polls held in Rawalpindi on December 5.

`The ECP is compiling the results and will announce them next weel(. The results for Punjab will be announced soon,` ECP spokesman Khursheed Alam told Dawn.

He said the results of the LG elections Phase I and Phase II would be announced jointly.

A senior official of the ECP added that the returning officers in Rawalpindi did not submit the details to the ECP despite the expiry of the allocated time for the recounting of votes.

He explained that the recounting of votes was to be completed within two days of the elections and on the third day the ROs were supposed to submit the used and leftover ballot papers to the election commission.

`Mostly, the ROs, who were taken from the town municipal administration and the local administration, failed to return the ballot papers and other material to the ECP,` he said.

Local political leaders said it would create doubts on the election process as the ECP was bound to announce the results within three days.

PTI Rawalpindi leader Zahid Kazmi said political parties wanted to see the official results to chalk out their future strategy. `The results should be announced in three days but the delay is creating doubts about the election commission,` he said.

`For the first time, the elections were held in phases.

General elections are held in a day and the official results are announced within three days but despite holding the local government elections in phases the ECP failed to announce the results on time,` he said.

PPP leader Nasir Mir said in the modern world the ECP failed to compile the results in a week. He said there was a need to improve the capacity of the commission.

Mr Mir said all the winning and losing candidates as well as political parties needed the complete election results.

`Though we got separate results from the returning officers, the candidates want to see the difference of votes in union councils,` he said.Aamir Yasin