Election observers from the Commonwealth have criticised the fairness of the 2024 general elections in Pakistan in their long-awaited final report, noting that voters’ “fundamental political rights” were restricted during the polls.
The report, released on Tuesday more than 18 months after the elections, flagged the shutdown of mobile phone services on election night, saying it “reduced the transparency of the process and impacted the efficiency of delivering results”.
“Critically, the lack of digitally transmitted results forms expanded opportunities for the manipulation of Forms 45, 46 and 47,” the Commonwealth Observer Group said in its 161-page report.
The observer group further said that “it surveyed a wide range of documentation that appeared to indicate that, in some cases, copies of Forms 45 held by party agents differed from those used in the tabulation of results that later appeared on the ECP website, with vote totals and turnout figures altered.”
The report said: “We noted with concern a number of factors in the pre-election period that significantly impacted the level playing field, most crucially the non-allocation of the bat symbol to PTI and the registering of PTI candidates as independents.”
The report noted: “The COG received multiple reports of PTI members and supporters being arrested, detained, and of PTI offices and PTI members’ homes being closed or raided. These occurrences affected the ability of parties and candidates to exercise their fundamental constitutional rights of freedom of association and assembly.”
Alongside its criticisms, the group commended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s efforts to improve inclusivity. It highlighted “a reduction in the voter registration gender gap from 12% in 2013 to 7.7% in the 2024 election” and praised the expansion of the ECP’s Gender and Social Inclusion Wing.
It noted improvements in youth voter turnout and measures such as a gender hotline to report election-related harassment.
The report said: “The potential of Pakistan’s democracy is enormous. Pakistan has a vibrant and diverse media; women and the youth are more engaged than ever; and Pakistan’s CSOs play a critical role in the democratic life of the country, continually pushing for reform and improvement.”
However, it stressed that “the improvement of electoral processes will fundamentally depend on the broader political conditions in which elections are held”. agencies *