LARKANA: Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, disgruntled Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader, has said that rulers have a proven track record ofinnuencing elections and using the bureaucracy to rig polls in their favour, `it is therefore of no use if an election cannot be held under supervision of judiciary and Rangers`.

Talking to a number of delegations which called on him at his residence in Mirpur Bhutto on Wednesday, the veteran politician said that this time again the rulers had prepared a massive plan to rig local government elections and to achieve that end they had already posted their favourite officers where they would be useful to them.

He advised anti-PPP candidates that if they did not have the courage to oppose them, they had better not contest at all.

He recalled that when the PPP was in opposition its candidates had faced defeat after defeat in elections in their (Mumtaz Bhutto`s) constituency and cited elections of 1993 and 1997 when PPP candidates could not inflict defeat on them despite having the votes recounted thrice.

He said that no one ever lent ear to the hue and cry by losers once results of `rigged polls` had been announced. If results were challenged and election tribunal reversed result, the high court would issue an stay, he said.

He said that Syed Qaim Ali Shah was still working as a chief minister on the basis of court`s stay and cited example of changing results of PS-37 where Amir Bakhsh Bhutto, who was winning by 7,000 votes, was declared a loser after the returning officer unilaterally announced results.

A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court but the petitioner had not been called even once in the case, he said and added that currently 15 defeated PPP candidates were sitting in assembly and running ministries.

It would be better not to hold election at all if it could not be held under the supervision of judiciary and Rangers, he said.