KARACHI:
One predominant trait that was found in all districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the recent local bodies’ elections was the high number of rejected votes. The complicated voting procedure can be blamed for this. First, the voters were asked to mark the files with their left thumb. Once their thumbs had been stained with ink, they were handed the votes, which were then marked by a special stamp. As most voters would tell you, including former CM Pervaiz Khattak who had to vote three times, it was very difficult to handle the voting paper with stained hands. In most cases, some ink marks from the thumb ended up on the voting paper.
In addition, people were not given clear instructions because of which those who were uneducated continued using their thumb impressions to even mark the votes, which turned their vote into a rejected vote. This, therefore, suggests that the outcome of the elections is not highly representative because of poor management and discrepancies in the procedure.
I request the Election Commission Pakistan to improve this process. The staff should provide clear instructions to voters. Also, voters should be given tissue paper at the time of voting to clean their thumb and keep it covered during the vote. Thumb impression or stamp or both should be allowed as correct votes if they are marked in one box to avoid rejection of votes.
Shahryar Khan
Peshawar
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2021.
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