Gutter politics

The opposition is 20 seats less than the government in the National Assembly but in a non-transferable single vote manages to get a majority of five over the government nominated candidate for Senate. The government scores 16 votes short in a secret ballot. The vote was preceded by an intense verbal and legal battle between the two sides to hold an open ballot. The opposition spurned government proposals to amend the Constitution for a more transparent process through show of hands and wished to retain the ballot secret as provided under the Constitution. The government prayed before the court to permit an open ballot to ensure the integrity of the vote but was redirected to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The court avoided being mired in a political dispute. The ECP stayed with the convention to avoid generating another controversy.

The government was fairly criticised for sleeping over it all this time and acting altruistic when it found the going tough in a possible defeat on the all-important federal seat, despite a majority. Why and how did the government come to such pass is another study of Pakistan’s labyrinthine politics, and as interesting because it underwrites a most successful political effort at creating and expanding political space where none or very little had existed before. On the day this piece comes out the opposition may just be crowning its most remarkable reversal of political fortunes by electing its chairman in the Senate. The government will have a lot to introspect in why and how its fortunes have slipped over time.

Back to the ugliness though of how the electoral process is circumvented and compromised to produce unlikely results. Ideally, a Senate is meant to be proportionally represented in how the directly elected provincial assemblies are composed save one or two where ‘magic happens’ or ‘conscience prevails’. I intend the pun. Not entirely though. There is also a rational explanation to where a senatorial candidate will emerge a winner when a party lacked basic numbers to make for a seat. It has to do with the transferability of the vote and priority nomination by a voting member in favour of his preferred choice after his own party nominee to the Senate has been placed above all. The system then transfers the preferred vote to others mentioned by the voting member. If enough of such transferred votes can accumulate to make a full qualifying number an unexpected candidate may appear a winner.

This is entirely legal in a voting system which holds the sanctity of the vote dear and expects the member to act per his or her conscience. The trouble is when neither, the sanctity or the conscience, are in line leaving a lot to lament. The trouble is when both, sanctity and conscience, are for sale. When it happens openly and gloated upon with chest-thumping it marks the depths of depredation and a sorry loss for the society. It marks the beginning of the end of any value system that was meant to underwrite democratic probity. It is as bad as raping a lonely traveller in the dark of the night before the eyes of her very children. It denotes an incremental assault of the system of governance and its constituting elements. A fish is born with its head rotten. Rest is only a matter of time.

In the National Assembly where members vote to elect a federal candidate for the Senate the vote is single and non-transferable, almost a direct election. Ditto when choosing the chairman Senate. When a surprise emerges as was in the case of Yousuf Raza Gilani, there has either been a vote of dissent from the ruling party in favour of the opposing candidate, or votes have been ‘enticed’ away from the ruling party. And this is where the rub has been for the last couple of weeks.

A video shows the son of Gilani, the Senate candidate, offering inducements to legislators for vote. The offers made are huge and ask of them to betray their party by either wasting their vote or voting for Gilani, the opposition’s candidate. In the ultimate count Gilani managed five votes more than the majority party — seven governmental votes were wasted while nine out-rightly voted for the opposition candidate, who won. This isn’t new and has happened before but never with such audacity and impudence.

It would be unfair not to mention the removal of an elected government in Balochistan in 2018 — through a legal, democratic process but externally triggered and manipulated. A new political party formed of realigned members emerged overnight. The party went on to win the 2018 elections and nominated their candidate for the position of chairman Senate who won against all odds. Influence and money, both played their part. The common thread through these alleged manipulations was the role of a mainstream political party and its leadership which offered to play proxy for other players. This narrative hasn’t been denied. Asif Zardari claimed his ‘magic’ had turned things around. He was also able to get two senators elected from a provincial assembly where the party did not have votes even for one. Life and politics aren’t as straight as democracy tends to claim while this kind of ‘magic’ defines the politics we must live under.

In the current spate Zardari believes his candidate won 20 votes less. Such was the extent of his intrusion into the PTI ranks impacting the integrity of the vote. Bilawal Bhutto, PPP’s current chairman, states that all that is necessary to win the electoral process will be employed. Apparently that justifies corrupting the process to gain numbers. PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz informs that votes for Gilani’s seat were acquired in exchange for a ticket in the next general elections whenever those are held. After this unexpected reversal the PTI and Imran Khan too are staking claims on using whatever means necessary to win the contest for Senate chairman. So much for the integrity and fidelity of the electoral process and politics itself. Many alibis for subverting the Constitution and corrupting the system are making the rounds but the entire process is so blatant it doesn’t even have a pretense. It is different this time round. Intent is difficult to establish even if every other indicator is a tell-tale sign of the members selling themselves for money and the leaders short-circuiting what they have undertaken on oath to safeguard. There is also no remorse over what has happened.

The courts hide behind the need of maintainable evidence — available videos of the crime somehow don’t match up to a detailed evidentiary matrix. The ECP doesn’t want to take sides in this extensively polarised political fight. Seeming neutral thus is safer. The institutions have been forced-muted and neutered under the fear of betraying partiality. A highly volatile and hostile political narrative peddled by the opposition seems to have cowed most institutions into submission. The media cherishes the opportunity to play up the fracas making for salacious news. The people look on. And all relish the moment because it somehow equates to fighting the military down into submission. The farce sustains.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2021.

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