Crying foul: Arts Council poll results withheld after row over counting

Some candidates claim they had reservations over computerised counting of ballots

KARACHI: Results for the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi's annual elections were withheld after the counting of votes was closed by the election commissioner, Saleem Rajput, midway at 4:30am.

"The polling was satisfactory, in fact much better than last year," said the chief election commissioner and chairperson of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui. "However one of the panel's members tried to create an altercation in official duty, which is a Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) offence," he explained. He added that counting too should have been done peacefully, like the polling.

Later, a meeting was held between both the contesting panels. After debating for almost an hour and a half, both the panels agreed to count the votes again under Siddiqui's supervision.

On Sunday, polling ended at 10:45pm after the completion of eight hours of designated time. Counting started at 12:30am in Manzar Akbar Hall of the Arts Council. Twenty-three members from each panel were asked to participate in the counting process, for which 20 laptop computers had been set up. The results were being screened live to members and supporters waiting for results in the premises of the Arts Council.  A total of 2,669 votes were cast out of the total 5,720 registered votes.

According to the chief polling agent of the Ahmed Shah panel, Agha Shirazi, the supporters of Shehr-e-Quaid panel had an altercation with government officials over the process of counting votes. One of the panel members also had a minor clash with the staff. The Shehr-e-Quaid panel accused the government officials of supporting the Ahmed Shah panel and demanded a re-poll.  Meanwhile, supporters of the Ahmed Shah panel claimed they were winning the elections like the previous eight years.

According to Najummudin Shaikh of the Shehr-e-Quaid panel, they had reservations regarding the computerised counting of the ballots, which they already conveyed to their opponents before counting. Mahmud Khan, a former vice-president of the Arts Council, said that software was installed in laptops with the help of the government of Sindh to affect the results.

For his part, Siddiqui claimed that no panel had yet approached him with any complaints. "I can't say anything at the moment but I'm expecting a meeting with the election commissioner in a day or two in this regard."

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2015.