Election Day is here

Today is the 25^th of July and we head to the polls to choose our rulers for the next five years, finally putting to rest all the apprehensions of a delayed or no election. Between 8am and 6pm — well, an hour has been added to the polling time this election — nearly 106 million eligible voters in the country, 59.2 million males and 46.7 million females, are supposed to exercise their right to franchise for the formation of the National Assembly as well as the four provincial assemblies.

For the 272 general seats in the National Assembly, a total of 3,459 candidates are in the fray, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan. The candidates include 1,623 from Punjab, 824 from Sindh, 725 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 287 from Balochistan. In case of the provinces, a total of 4,036 candidates are contesting for 297 general seats in the Punjab Assembly, 2,252 are in the run for 130 general seats in the Sindh Assembly; 1,165 are contesting for 99 general seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 943 candidates are out in the field for 51 general seats in the Balochistan Assembly.

The election — our eleventh in nearly 71 years — marks only the second time we are having a democratic transition of power. This still is an achievement for a country that is all mired in political instability — ever vulnerable to military interventions thereby — apart from the security threats from outside that remained at work all along in a bid to stop our advance to our third consecutive general election without the direct involvement of non-political forces. No wonder we had a bloody build-up to the Election Day that claimed at least 170 lives, including those of three prominent election candidates, in horrific suicide blasts, drive-by shootings and bombings at canvassing campaigns. One of the suicide attacks, in Mastung, alone sent 149 breathing beings into eternal slumber, turning out to be the deadliest attack in the country’s history, alongside the APS carnage of December 2014. And to ensure no such repeat of violence, eight hundred thousand security personnel, including three hundred and seventy-one thousand army soldiers, will stand guard on the Election Day.

But as we are all set to fulfil our foremost national duty, a hung parliament is what looms on the political horizon of the country — something that will not help our fragile democracy and that will make the task of democratic dispensation for our incoming rulers even more difficult. With no single political party winning an absolute majority, the government will find itself at the mercy of the opposition parties in order to carry out the legislation business and take forward the policy matters. The battle, anyway, is mainly between the PML-N’s ‘tiger’ and the PTI’s ‘bat’ and Punjab will be ‘The Battleground’, even though the PPP’s ‘arrow’ is also staking a claim at the seat of the government, mainly relaying on its long-intact popularity in Sindh. The independents — especially those riding the ‘jeep’ in particular — are also likely to clinch a good enough number of seats to dictate terms.

The result is no foregone conclusion, and before the clock ticks closer to midnight, it will be pretty much clear whether the nation has backed the idea of ‘Naya Pakistan’ or it has said yes to the calls for ‘Respect for Vote’.

And as a footnote, one must add that the vote is your voice and our voice and you and we must let your and our voice be heard.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2018.

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