Academics express distrust in upcoming polls

“Social media mapping has been used for segregation of voters’ polling stations. Even the women of the same family have been assigned different polling stations, which, in most of the cases, are far away from each other,” said Associate Professor of Political Science at Kinnaird College, Dr Khusboo Ejaz, while critiquing the election system at an online event discussing free and fair elections.

Dr Ejaz was invited as a guest speaker at a webinar held to discuss the very current topic of democratic elections.

The event hosted by Devcom-Pakistan Centre for Geopolitical Studies was attended by experts, academics and students. Other guest speakers included former senator Farhatullah Babar, Kinnaired College Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr Khusboo Ejaz, Bahria University Associate Professor, Dr Hassan Daud Butt and Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director, Munir Ahmed.

The event was hosted right as the general elections to be held on February 8 approach. The speakers at the event put forward the question of free elections and brought up the reliability of the polling procedures.

Former senator, Farhatullah Babr expressed that he had “no trust” in the new Election Management System (EMS) that was introduced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the other day. He said that political parties had not been briefed about the new system for the transmission of election results, which has added to fears and doubts regarding the merit of forthcoming elections.

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“One of the main political parties has already been pushed out of the running. We repeatedly hear about the level playing field but actually there is no such thing. We shouldn’t be surprised if the EMS fails when the time comes for submitting election results,” said Babar.

He added that “Some powers are consistently trying to manoeuvre the parliament, judiciary and even the media. A resolution in the senate against the general elections, action against the protesting Balochi families in front of the National Press Club and media manoeuvring are the recent examples.”

He impressed upon the importance of raising a voice against injustice and unfairness while expressing fears that improper general elections could lead to political instability.

Despite his reservations, Babar urged citizens, especially the young voters, to come out on the polling day and cast their votes in any case. “Threats may be used by some quarters to keep the turnout low. But, everyone should exercise their right to vote without considering the outcome.”

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Overall, the participants of the webinar showed their doubts about a reasonable turnout for the February 8 polling. About 10 million eligible youth and women will remain unregistered for casting their vote because they have not been issued CNICs yet. Meanwhile, there are rumours circulating about threats of terrorist attacks on polling stations which may discourage voters from turning up.

Kinnaired College Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr Khusboo Ejaz, said that “We have not once seen fair and free elections in the history of this country. The coming elections will be the worst in the form of pre-election rigging.”

According to her, the lection demarcation had been purposefully manipulated in a way that it would influence voter turnout. “Social media mapping has been used for segregation of voters’ polling stations. Even the women of the same family have been assigned different polling stations, which, in most of the cases, are far away from each other. Women usually are dependent on their counterparts for commuting on election day in particular. This would limit the women voters’ turnout.”

Bahria University Associate Professor, Hassan Daud Butt highlighted that 2024 will be a historic year as 60 per cent of the world will be holding elections this year, including Pakistan, India, Russia and the United States. “It would have a significant impact not only on the internal situation of the respective countries, but it will spill over to the other parts of the region and the world over.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2024.