Titbits of elections

I love going to remote places and talking to strangers on day-to-day issues facing them. As there was a sudden surge in prices of essential consumer items and bye-election on no less than 20 Punjab assembly seats coming up this Sunday, I thought this is the best time to be in the field and with the people.

Three members of PATTAN’s team left Islamabad for Lahore on 23^rd June. We visited three of the four constituencies of Lahore where bye-elections are to take place. From Lahore we went to Chack Jhumra, Faisalabad, and then to Multan and Muzaffargarh. We met journalists, civil society activists, labour leaders, members of political parties and the voters. We also conducted participatory analysis of Sindh’s local elections. We also trained our partners on how to conduct participatory accountability of electoral structures and processes.

Here are the titbits of our visit. First and foremost is about a poor peasant — comrade Ghulam Mustafa Chandio of the Awami Tehreek of late Rasool Bux Palijo — who defeated a nominee of a feudal lord MP of PPP with a huge margin. The Express Tribune story corroborates our findings that he faced all kinds of threats and hurdles. The credit also goes to Awami Tehreek which has been empowering haris in Sindh for long. This victory comes in an environment where candidates on more than 900 (15%) of the total 6,131 seats were elected unopposed in the first phase of local election. For comparison, in the recently held local elections in K-P and Baluchistan just 5% and 7% candidates respectively got elected uncontested. Some form of jhurlu (magical rigging) might have used.

In some rural areas, nomination papers of unwanted candidates were rejected for strange reasons like: names of candidates or of his/her nominee or seconder were missing from electoral rolls of the ward or union committee; some candidates were asked to present driving licences or documents of cars irrespective of whether they own a car or not; others were asked to present water bills even though in many of the rural areas tap water is not available. In many areas, potential candidates were threatened or ‘motivated’ to withdraw. This is how the way paved for favourites.

Another titbit from Sindh’s local election is: why to hold election in certain district in the first phase? Were any criteria developed for the selection of districts of various phases or not. And if yes, where is that criteria and under which law? No wonder most of the PDM coalition partners are openly challenging local election results.

Now let’s come back to Punjab. “I always cast my vote but would never commit this mistake in future because my vote has always been manipulated during counting and my MP has often sold his mandate,” said Manzoor Baloch, a resident of Muzaffargarh, during a discussion we had with him and some workers at a roadside chai-khana.

Absurdity of Pakistan’s democracy has been exposed by the so-called of champions of democracy themselves. The people working in factories, daily wage earners, farm labourers and contractual workers appear to be losing interest in elections. The lowest ever turnout in Karachi’s NA240 bye-election is a stark indicator of severe alienation. Same may happen in bye-election too. Many people we talked to frankly said that if their MPs could sell their vote in assemblies for the sake of money and power, “what is wrong if we do the same to fulfil the needs of our families, especially amid the back-breaking price hike these days”.

Though we are least interested in political dimension of the ongoing election campaign, everyone we talked to wanted us to tell them what is happening in the country and where we are headed as a nation. My reply to the extremely angry and worried people was: “It all depends on us. If we start behaving like the greedy elite, we will be doomed. We must claim our space as comrade Mustafa Chandio did in Qambar-Shahdadkot.”

More titbits. We must note that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, as many as 20 bye-elections are taking place simultaneously because of defection-led de-seating of MPs. Interestingly while the election campaign is gearing up, demand for general election is also gaining momentum. While the fate of Hamza Shehbaz and his father is written on the wall, the ECP may soon announce the dates of local election in Punjab and Islamabad too. Also, the second phase of local election in Sindh will take place on 24 July. Elections are there everywhere, and uncertainty has overwhelmed the nation. But to me the most worrisome thing is the dwindling capacity of ECP.

For instance, the Commission appears to have stretched itself too much. The provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab, in collaboration with the establishment, are bent upon violating code of election conduct. For instance, Punjab Home Minister Ata Tarar visited Jhang where two bye-elections will take place on 17 July. His visit has already caused a huge damage to a fundamental principle of ‘level playing field’ to all contesting parties. The ECP has announced taking action but damage has been done.

Moreover, electricity loadshedding in most of bye-election constituencies has almost come to an end or declined while it has gone up in the adjacent areas. Fairness of election is being slaughtered in daylight.

There is need for journalists to find out who is staying in district Circuit Houses; who is travelling to bye-election constituencies; who is meeting DCs, DPOs and DROs; who are being appointed as presiding and assistant presiding officers. There is need to check the logs of phone calls of mover and shakers in each district; and who they are meeting nowadays. The best way to find these details is to file the Right to Information requests. This warrants extraordinary intervention from media and civil society.

It’s a now-or-never situation. The ECP appears to lack strategic thinking and capacity to handle data. A state body that can’t process simple forms of election results and upload error-ridden forms on its website can’t ensure trust in its working. As many as 70% result forms available on the ECP website related to the first phase of K-P local election have serious errors. The only way forward to build people’s trust in system is to hold free and fair elections. Only ECP can do that!

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2022.

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