People’s vote brought PTI to power: Shibli

Says Fafen had acknowledged significant improvement in quality of critical electoral processes

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Monday declared that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had come to power with the support and votes of people in 2018.

Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), a reputable independent non-governmental organisation monitoring elections and other democratic processes, had acknowledged significant improvement in the quality of critical electoral processes in the 2018 general election, he said in a tweet.

The minister shared Fafen’s comparative list of irregularities observed in the 2013 and 2018 general elections, showing decline in the latter.

According to Fafen, around 133 petitions were filed to challenge the election in the National Assembly constituencies in 2013 while in 2018 their number was only 102.

Both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had challenged the election in 24 NA constituencies in 2018 while the PTI alone filed 23 petitions in the Election Commission of Pakistan against "unfair" polls.

According to Fafen data, the percentage of campaign materials presence inside the polling stations in 2013 was 3.2%, which fell to 1.8% in 2018. Similarly, the percentage of voters permitted to cast votes with identification documents other than national identity cards in 2013 was 9.3% against 1.1% in 2018.

The Fafen data showed that in 2013 the ratio of polling staff, polling agents, security personnel or other persons accompanying voters behind secrecy screens was 17% which fell to 6.8% in 2018.

Likewise, the percentage of polling staff disallowing voters with disabilities from seeking assistance to cast vote of their choice fell to 3.5% in 2018 from 14.9% in 2013.

Similarly, the incidents of capturing polling stations remained 1.2% in 2013 while none was reported in 2018.

The incidents of unauthorised persons pressurising the polling staff were 3.8% in 2013, which fell to 0.5% in 2018.

The Fafen report shared by Faraz stated that the ratio of voters queued at the polling stations not allowed to vote at the close of ballots remained 23.5% in 2013 against 7.5% in 2018.

The ratio of incidents of polling station result form (Form No 45) not provided to the candidates and their agents present at the polling stations in 2018 fell to 2.5% from 7.5% in 2013.

Likewise, the incidents of violence at polling stations fell from 7.6% in 2013 to 1.1% only in 2018. The incidents of polling staff trying to influence voters electoral choice in 2013 remained 2% and 0.5% in 2018.

Faraz said it was time for the foreign media outlets, including the BBC, to realise that the PTI was voted to power by the people in the 2018 election, “notwithstanding the baseless propaganda being churned out unless they sought to become a tool of the propagandists”.

He maintained that the army supported the democratic government and its policies as required by the constitution.

About the alleged military dominance as well as its role in the elections, he noted that the Pakistan's detractors were frustrated because the PTI government and Pakistan Army were on the same page.