Election irregularities and rigging have been the hallmarks of our election process for decades. Our election commission has been toothless in getting its orders executed as the provincial and federal machinery have largely been unable to implement its orders due to one reason or the other. Election authorities, both on the national and provincial level, have always complained about their helplessness in getting their orders implemented. When we compare our election commission with that of India we see an absolute contrast, which is the main reason behind why elections there are largely credible and transparent. Although there has been no precedence of fair politics here — as every opposition party blames the incumbent government of massive rigging for its defeat — in general elections every losing stakeholder refuses to accept the results on the back of one allegation or the other, which is rather unfortunate as nobody undergoes self-accountability to investigate the causes that could have contributed to their defeat.
In the general elections of 2013 many opposition parties, including the PTI, blamed massive rigging for their defeat as these results were not according to their aspirations. Even the PPP also declared that the results were engineered despite the fact that all the opinion surveys predicted the party’s poor performance in the elections on the back of its poor governance. The country witnessed one of the worst stalemates last August when the PTI demonstrated its street power to shake the power corridors to press for enquiry into what it calls massive rigging. A judicial commission was eventually formed with its terms of reference finalised after a long deliberation and deadlock.
What the PTI achieved after its formation is another debate and can be discussed on some other occasion as many observers are of the view that this commission had been given a very limited mandate to probe the election that has been largely attributed as a success of the ruling PML-N. The ruling party has always been of the view that there had been irregularities, which it claims is the hallmark of every election process. It claims that there was no planned and organised rigging so it cannot be made responsible for any such malpractices of the election commission or the then interim government while PTI lawyers have been given the uphill task of proving the planned rigging in the proceedings of that commission to make its demand for re-election worthwhile. The proceedings of this commission are still underway as its tenure has been extended but the recent local bodies elections have definitely weakened the PTI’s position. Around 10 people were killed with many injured in incidents of firing, tearing of ballot papers and snatching of ballot boxes as the army had to be called into various constituencies to control the situation.
A Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) report indicates that around 26 percent rigging has been observed with many irregularities. Even the PTI’s ally, the JI, has also protested against these malpractices, which it calls rigging by the provincial government. The PPP’s co-chairman along with the ANP’s leadership has also blasted the provincial government and has directly blamed it for engineered rigging. An important leader of the ANP, who also happens to be its former minister of information, has been arrested on charges of ordering the murder of a political worker of the ruling party. This arrest has heightened the political temperature as political parties are regarding it to be political victimisation. The police have also reported arresting the winning candidate of the PTI on the charge of firing at ANP leaders, which so far seems to be a balancing act to prove its neutrality.
The election commission has also confirmed having received many reports of irregularities and has hinted re-election in many constituencies. The provincial chief minister is blaming the election commission for this poor management but no sane person will buy this claim as the provincial government cannot be absolved from its responsibility by passing such comments. There is no doubt that there was confusion in the minds of voters as they were never trained and briefed about too many ballot papers, which took more than usual time in casting a single vote. In many constituencies ballot papers were not delivered on time and in other instances the names of candidates were not property printed. Similarly, election personnel that always belong to the education sector were not trained. However, if proper and comprehensive investigation is done then both the provincial government and election commission will be held responsible for all these inefficiencies and irregularities, which can be linked to rigging as well. Similarly, all the political parties must also share the responsibility as their leaders and workers were reported to have intervened in the election process, trying to capitalise on the back of weak administration machinery.
Unfortunately, this has always been the routine in our election process where every political stakeholder tries his best to maneuver the proceedings. These local bodies’ elections are a good omen for strengthening democracy but, at the same time, they have also dented the credibility of all the political parties and also the election commission to hold free and fair elections, which are the cornerstone of any strong democracy. It is hoped that such deadly episodes will not be repeated in the upcoming local bodies’ election in two large provinces of the country but in the current scenario it seems a remote possibility given the tension between the political parties and largely ineffective election commission.
The writer is a freelance columnist