Daily Times

Lahore: The Awami National Party’s (ANP) performance in the recently held by-poll in NA-4 shows that it has staged a comeback in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa’s electoral politics, analysts say.

In 2013, ANP leaders had termed Taliban attacks as a reason for the party’s inability to run election campaign.

The party has secured 18.9 percent of the votes polled in the by-poll on Thursday.

Local journalist Rehmat Mehsud was of the opinion that ANP had performed better than was visible in statistics considering its candidate did not have enough resources unlike the bigwigs of other parties.

Party activists say that the security situation was better than in the past but they were still fighting against the odds. ANP activist Khushal Khattak said, “The party was competing against both federal and provincial governments, as state resources were used in the campaign.”

He said that the ANP leadership was proud of the fact that the party’s campaign was led by its women leaders. He said security situation of the province had improved, but the ANP leaders continued to be threatened by terrorists. “The improved security situation allowed us to campaign, but the attacks continue. Two district leaders of the party were killed in a remote control blast in Hernai on Friday,” he said.

Extreme right:

Khattak said that the involvement of extremist groups in the political process and Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) inaction in this regard was a cause of concern. “The sudden increase in extremist groups’ vote bank is linked to the narrative being built by the establishment as a part of security policy.”

The religious extremist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik had managed to bag over 9,000 votes. Awami Workers Party’s (AWP) leader Ismat Shahjahan shared the ANP leader’s concerns and said that the electoral arena of Pakistan had been radicalized. “Secular parties should keep contesting the polls even if it is just to make their presence felt. The secular forces should unite against the extremist groups to stop them from further radicalising the society,” she said.

According to Mehsud, Labbaik’s emergence could not be correlated just with extremism. It can be explained through other factors as well. “The conservative voters saw the newly formed group as an alternative to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) because the latter’s performance in the province has been dismal. It has less to do with support for extremist ideology and more to do with disappointment with the existing options,” he said.

Mixed views on PTI:

Although the PTI managed to retain the seat, a decline was seen in the margin of victory compared to the 2013 elections.

Analysts expressed mixed views on the party’s performance.

“The voters in KP usually vote for the party in power in by-polls in hopes of seeing an improvement in the governance, so the victory cannot essentially be seen as a vote of confidence,” said Mehsud said. He said that the decline in PTI’s victory margin meant the people were not too happy with the provincial government’s performance as the ministers were unable to fulfill campaign promises.

However, senior journalist Imran Bokhari was of the opinion that through its campaign the PTI had given a clear message that it would not form alliance and seat adjustments with any parties. “The PTI’s victory indicates that the public opinion largely favours it,” he said. However, he added, the PTI has a chance in next general elections only if it fields dedicated candidates because Imran Khan’s charisma is no longer the only factor that can help the party get votes. The voter turnout in the by-poll was also noticeable especially given that the constituency has witnessed several deadly attacks when Taliban atrocities were on the rise.

“The huge voter turnout and increased women participation shows that things are getting back to normal in areas of KP that were once considered no-go zones,” Bokhari said.

Published in Daily Times, October 28^th 2017.