Off to polls: Destiny calling

Unique for its many firsts, country witnesses a democratic transition.

ISLAMABAD:

Millions of Pakistanis go to the polls today after witnessing the bloodiest election campaign ever in the country’s history, which has taken some of the gloss off a civilian government transferring power to another via the ballot box.

Over the past month, militants have bombed, shot at, killed, kidnapped and threatened political candidates and supporters in an attempt to torpedo the vote.

Some 86.16 million people are set to exercise their democratic right. The polls are unique for its many ‘firsts’. These are the first elections where the youth comprises 40% of the total number of registered voters. It will be the first time that polls held in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will be on a party basis. But above all ‘first’, these novel elections will not see the ‘establishment’ at work – not visibly at least.

In the 10 general elections held since 1970, Pakistan Peoples Party has emerged victorious four times, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or the Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJI). No government could be formed in 1977, while the 1985 elections were held on a non-party basis under General Ziaul Haq’s military rule.

However, the ‘establishment’ has been at play in almost all elections. The 1990 elections, when the IJI came into power with Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, the polls were described by both local and international observers as being “massively rigged.”

After completing its five-year tenure, PPP seems to be in trouble, perhaps for the first time. PPP and its allied parties were singled out by terrorists in the run-up to the 2013 elections. But many said it was their performance over the past five years that was seen as a deciding factor contributing to their poor electioneering.

Managing the ballot

The biggest elections of the country’s history would be supervised and executed by 644,234 polling personnel deployed at 69,729 polling stations, hosting 193,235 polling booths.  48, 613, 963 males and 37, 548, 676 females would exercise their right to vote in today’s polls.

In the wake of dwindling law and order situation in the country, particularly in Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has termed 15,681 polling stations as high sensitive, 15,214 as sensitive and 38, 834 as normal.

Police, along with other law enforcement agencies, will guard all polling stations. The army is deployed at high sensitive polling stations while its presence will be seen in the form of a Quick Response Force if polling staff requisition them.

The players

A total of 15,621 candidates will be contesting 268 National and 570 provincial assembly seats.

From the 250 registered political parties, 148 parties were allotted symbols, however, not all of them fielded candidates to contest elections.

Elections have been postponed for three national and six provincial assembly seats, as candidates from these constituencies have been murdered. These include NA-254 (Karachi-XVI), where Awami National Party (ANP) leader Sadiq Zaman Khattak was murdered, NA-241 (Karachi-III), where independent candidate Shakeel Ahmad was killed, NA-83 (Faisalabad-IX) where independent candidate Mian Amjad died.

Other constituencies of provincial assemblies, where elections are delayed include PP-217, PP-254 Muzzaffar Gardh, PB-32, PS-64 and PP-254.

In one constituency, NA-38 (Tribal Area-III), Kurram Agency, elections were postponed due to the deteriorating law and order situation.

Elections are on schedule in PP-200, where former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son, Ali Haider Gilani, one of the contesting candidates, was kidnapped.

Party alliances

Unlike the 2002 elections, when religious parties struck a coalition named Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), there is no major pre-poll alliance among religious parties going into the ballot, exacept the Mutahida Deeni Muhaaz (MDM) – an electoral alliance of five religious groups including Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islami-Sami (JUI-S) and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP).

The alliance, however, has slim chances of winning an MMA-like victory.

MMA – an alliance of JUI-F, Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious parties – managed to form governments in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) but the alliance disintegrated prior to the 2008 elections. This time, both JUI-F and JI are taking solo flights.

In today’s polls, many major political parties including PML-N, PML-Functional, JI and other parties formed an alliance with nationalist parties in Sindh called the 10-Party Alliance. They have gone for seats adjustment with one another.

Unlike the 2008 polls, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, no political parties have boycotted elections.  Previously, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), JI, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) boycotted the 2008 elections, refusing to go to ballot under President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf’s reign.

The only exception, to boycott the polls, would be firebrand scholar Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT).

Party Position 2008/2002

In 2008, PPP-Parliamentarians formed the government in the centre by forging an alliance with ANP, MQM and JUI-F. It secured 122 seats in National Assembly with PML-N as a runner up with 92.  PML-Quaid, with 61 seats, jumped into the coalition later.

In 2002, PML-Q -- also known as the ‘King’s Party’ – fully backed by former president Musharraf secured 118 seats and managed to form a government in the centre by securing an alliance with MMA that won 61 seats.

PPP was the main opposition with 81 seats, while PML-N managed to win only 19 seats.

This assembly also completed its five-year term but under Musharraf’s de-facto command, hence it could not be called a completely democratic government.

Ensure impartiality, says ECP

The Election Commission has urged polling staff to ensure impartiality to make the voting exercise credible.

ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan told reporters that every institution affiliated to the election process should have to play its role to establish the 2013 elections as the most credible elections in the history of the country.

He said around 700,000 staff will be performing election duties, while 75,000 army personnel would be performing security duties.

Despite their assurances, the ministry of water and power did not fulfill its promise of no power shutdowns in the country on Friday, the ECP secretary said.

“If there will be power shutdowns for even a minute tomorrow, there will be a question mark on the performance of the ministry.”

Results procedure

Once polling will be over, counting of votes will be carried out at every polling station in the presence of polling agents of political parties.

The presiding officer will sign the result sheet and will also get it signed by the polling agents and deliver a copy to representatives.

The same copy along with ballot papers will be sent to the district returning officer’s office, where results of all the polling stations would be compiled based on result sheets coming from polling stations.

Once compiled, the returning officer will send it to ECP headquarters through fax. The ECP will announce results, which will be unofficial at that point.

The next day contesting candidates can ask the returning officer to recount all the ballots if they want so.

Similarly, they can ask him to open the postal ballots already reached his office in sealed envelops and add these votes accordingly in the final results.

ECP will later notify the official results completing all the formalities after a few days.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2013.