The candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Ms Saba Talpur, managed to trounce her opponent, PTI's Lal Malhi, who enjoyed support from 18 political parties and groups, including GDA, in the by-elections held in the desert district of Umerkot on Thursday. According to unofficial results from 498 polling stations, Ms. Talpur secured 164,788 votes, while Mr. Malhi, the joint candidate of PTI, GDA, and other anti-PPP forces, received 81,247 votes. Amid clashes between Pakistan People’s Party supporters and PTI and Joint opposition supporters, elections were held in Umerkot district for the National Assembly seat NA-213, which had fallen vacant following the demise of PPP stalwart Nawab Yousif Talpur.
After Nawab Yousif Talpur's death, the PPP leadership decided to award the party ticket to his widow, Saba Talpur, to gain sympathy from the common folk, and the decision proved right. Since Saba Talpur was observing her Iddat period, her son, PPP MPA Taimoor Talpur, led her election campaign and held public gatherings across the constituency, criticising his opponents, particularly Lal Malhi. Nawab Yousif Talpur had an impeccable record of winning elections during his three-decade career, losing only once in the 1997 general elections.
Although no major incidents of violence and chaos were reported across the constituency, the opponents of PPP claimed that several incidents of rigging, harassment of voters, and intervention by state machinery reportedly took place in polling stations in remote areas of the Umerkot district. Voter turnout remained low, partly due to intense heat and partly because a large section of the working class, employed on daily wages in garment factories and as domestic workers, or those who had gone out of the district for casual labor to harvest wheat crops, could not make it to the polling stations.
In an interesting incident, a call recording between a polling agent of the Pakistan People’s Party and DC Umerkot, Tahir Ali Memon, went viral on social media. The agent complained to the DC about the unavailability of food, and when the DC asked, "Do you know to whom you have called?", the agent responded, "Sir, we were asked to call this number in case of any emergency." In another incident, a car belonging to a PTI supporter was reportedly stopped by rivals, and a lady voter in a leaked video was seen requesting the annoyed supporters to let them go. A video of Rahmatullah Rajar, personal secretary to Nawab Yousif Talpur, also went viral, showing him allegedly trying to rig.
The supporters of Lal Malhi claimed that PTI had led in the polling stations of the urban areas of the constituency. Lal Malhi accused the Pakistan People’s Party of using state machinery on election day to harass their voters and supporters, subjecting PTI polling agents and staff to torture, and issuing threats of dire consequences. He claimed that he had won the election, but his opponents changed the results, alleging that the "Election Commission failed to carry out the voting process with transparency." Malhi announced a shutdown strike across the Umerkot district on April 18 against alleged rigging in the by-polls and staged a protest outside the office of the returning officer. Meanwhile, Taimoor Talpur rejected all allegations against his party, saying the elections were held with utter transparency. PPP supporters celebrated their candidate's victory as soon as unofficial results were unveiled.