End of the first round

The first round of the 'non-party-based' local government elections in 53 districts across the country was completed on Thursday, with full participation of the political parties under different labels, though the voter turnout remained rather low amid allegations of official interference. According to available reports, the turnout in Punjab was the highest at 48 percent and in Sindh only one point less at 47 percent.
In NWFP and Balochistan it was 38 and 33 percent respectively, apparently because in certain constituencies women were not only discouraged from going out to vote, but were barred, through jirga orders, from participating in the election. In fact, the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Women Development, at a meeting in Islamabad, condemned what it termed a violation of basic human rights protected by Islam and guaranteed by the Constitution.
It urged the Election Commission (EC) to declare the election null and void in areas where women had been prevented from voting. Notably, the Acting Chief Election Commissioner, Abdul Hamid Dogar, had declared at the time of the filing of the nomination papers that he would reorder election in areas where women were stopped from standing as candidates.
By the same token, it is hoped, he will also heed the demand of the NA standing committee with regard to vote stopping.
Aside from the Opposition parties' allegations against the government of gerrymandering the election outcome, is the fact that an exceptionally high number of candidates have been elected unopposed. In the first phase alone, 5483 candidates were declared elected unopposed in 374 union councils of 110 districts.
Only 813 of these are minority seats, 649 women's reserved seats and 215 reserved seats for labour/farmers. For the second phase of elections scheduled for August 25, in the province of Punjab alone 66 candidates for the position of Nazim and 1,517 others have been declared elected unopposed.
It is hard to understand as to why so many seats have remained uncontested at a time when all the political parties have a deep interest in the local bodies because of their potential to influence the outcome of the national elections, to be held, hopefully, in another two years' time.
Unsurprisingly, the PML-Q and its allies have done very well in Thursday's elections. In Peshawar, though, a secular party, ANP, has given a very close fight to the religious parties alliance, the MMA, which runs the provincial government there. Having its power base in the Frontier province, ANP has always enjoyed a prominent place in provincial politics, though it lost out much of its support to the MMA at the time of the last national elections.
It remains to be seen whether its gains now are linked to the electorate's disillusionment with the MMA government or reflect a widely reported perception that the establishment is no more interested in bolstering the alliance. Another significant feature of the current polls is the poor showing of the PPP-P, particularly in Sindh.
While the ruling party candidates contesting under the banner of Khushhal Pakistan and their allies from the PML-F and MQM have bagged most of the seats, the PPP, which won majority of the popular vote in the last general election, has suffered a rout at least in nine districts of Lower and Upper Sindh.
As it is, the government and the Opposition leaders are locked in claims and counter-claims about the election results not only in Sindh but Punjab as well. In view of the heated pre-election exchanges between the MQM and the MMA about the Karachi situation, many had feared bloodshed on the Election Day. In the event, to everyone's relief, the day passed off peacefully.
However, in other cities as many as eleven people were killed in election-related violence. And yet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that he was pleased with the reports that the election process went on smoothly. The holding of 'peaceful', free and transparent elections, he averred, would send the message to the world that Pakistan is a vibrant democracy.
Apparently, given the overall state of the law and order in the country, this many people killed is not such a big issue for the government. In addition to violent clashes, press reports also speak of mismanagement in the distribution of ballot papers.
In some instances these papers were simply unavailable in required numbers while in others they did not carry symbols of all the candidates. Clearly, the EC has a lot of rectifying work to do before the next Election Day, which is approaching fast.