EDITORIAL: While the April 21 by-elections in 22 national and provincial assemblies constituencies once again are a subject of intense public arguments, in its report released on Tuesday, the Fair and Free Elections Network (Fafen), a respected civil society organisation, does little to allay public concerns even as it mentions an ‘improved results management’. It calls into question procedural irregularities, and restrictions on independent observers.
According to the report, polling agents and accredited observers generally had access to voting and counting process, but security officials or presiding officers barred Fafen observers from monitoring the election process at 19 polling stations in PP-36 (Wazirabad) and PP-22 (Chakwal-cum-Talagang).
In PP-22 the accreditation process was delayed until midday causing last-minute changes in Fafen’s observation scope. Although the report notes that overall the parties that won during the (highly controversial) February 8 general election, particularly the PML-N, retained their seats in the by-polls, in PP-36 and PP-93 (Bhakkar) where a PTI and an independent candidate had early secured victory, lost their respective bids this time.
Fafen goes on to point out that the five Lahore constituencies recorded the sharpest decline in voter turnout with PP-147 reporting a mere 14 percent voting as against 35 percent on Feb 8. Similarly, NA-119 Lahore registered a 19 percent turnout against 39 percent during the general election.
This comes across as an aberration considering that the present politically charged atmosphere gets the people more motivated to cast their votes. Or is it that they thought the outcome was predetermined, hence not worth the effort for them to go out and have their say? Nonetheless, the voter turnout in Khuzdar and Gujrat constituencies increased. The report, though, does not dwell on the interesting case of Gujrat, home constituency of former two-time chief minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of the Sunni Ittehad Council (PTI).
He was knocked out by a nephew contesting as a PML-Q (an ally of the ruling PML-N) candidate, securing just 18,237 votes against the latter’s 63,536. Few believe the validity of that outcome.
His party, the PTI, meanwhile has been alleging massive rigging. Lending its claims a measure of credence is the confession of a presiding officer in Lahore that he was made to sign Form-45 — which records the votes cast for individual candidates along with names of their polling stations — before the voting started. These issues raise serious concerns about the integrity of elections.
It is not only the main opposition party accusing the Election Commission of Pakistan of having failed to fulfil its primary responsibility of holding fair and free elections. Even some prominent members of the principal ruling party, PML-N, have openly been casting aspersions on the Feb 8 general election.
Elections are about the people deciding who should rule to promote collective progress and prosperity. Unless all the stakeholders recognise that right of the people, this country will keep lurching from crisis to crisis.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments
Comments are closed.