Massive irregularities were committed in the 2013 general elections ranging from vote counting processes to result documentation and dissemination, largely due to negligence of the presiding officers. A report compiled by the Free and Fair Election Network, Observation and Analysis of Election Day Processes, claims that officials at 1,387 polling stations out of 16,933 across the country were not seen showing all the ballot box seal numbers.
Under the rules, the officials were bound to show seal numbers of all the ballot boxes to the polling agents and other individuals present at polling stations. "Reopening the ballot box: Before breaking the seals show the seal numbers to the polling agents and other persons present in the polling station and ask them to match the seal numbers they recorded earlier (before and after the polling)," say the election commission rules. Polling officials at 611 polling stations out of 16,933 across the country had not emptied the National Assembly ballot boxes at a central location, clearly in violation of the rules and regulations. In almost one in every 25 polling stations, the National Assembly ballots were not gathered at a designated location, said the FAFEN in its report.
Fafen recommends that only Presiding Officers should open NA ballot boxes for counting and later open provincial assembly ballot boxes for separate counting to ensure an orderly and transparent ballot counting process. The officials at 877 (5.2 percent) polling stations out of 16,933 across the country had not counted the National Assembly ballot papers twice which they were required to do under the election commission rules and regulations. The report also says that the officials at 9,328 (55.1 percent) polling stations out of 16,933 across the country had not determined the invalid votes by clearly putting marks in the pile of invalid votes. In almost one in every five polling stations the polling officials were observed discarding some clearly marked ballots in the invalid pile in contravention of the established legal and procedural requirements.
The report recommends that the Election Commission of Pakistan needs to reinforce the importance of making each vote count and help ensure a process of verification of all the ballots declared invalid. Furthermore, the measure needs to be reinforced with corrective and punitive measures to help strengthen a more viable and transparent vote counting process. About irregularities in result documentation and dissemination, the report says that officials at 288 polling stations out of the 16,933 across the country were not seen recording the number of ballot papers on the NA Ballot Paper Account Form (Form XV).
The report recommends that the Presiding Officers must be held responsible for carefully and accurately accounting of all ballot papers issued to each polling station on specific forms for the purpose, including serial numbers of ballot books issued to the polling station and to each polling booth. The FAFEN observed a total of 31,337 polling booths across the country and witnessed the presence of people with weapons inside 1,321 polling booths. However, no such violation was reported from the remaining 30,016 booths.
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