Senate elections: It’s a near tie! - PPP, PML-N share sweepstakes

Vote marred by controversies result in a split mandate for ruling PML-N and opposition PPP

Federal and provincial lawmakers voted to elect over four dozen members of the upper house of parliament on Thursday in a vote marred by controversies that resulted in a split mandate for the ruling PML-N and the opposition PPP.  The incoming senators are to replace 52 lawmakers who are retiring on March 11 after completing their six-year constitutional term.

The controversy erupted when MPs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) agitated the last-minute changes in the voting procedure for them through a presidential decree. President Mamnoon Hussain issued the order late Wednesday night, restricting the Fata MPs to cast one vote each instead of four granted to them by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2002.

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As unofficial results of the Senate elections trickled in from Lahore, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) looked set to sweep all seats in Punjab, quelling rumours of ‘dissent’ within the prime minister’s bastion.

The PML-N leadership came out aggressively defending its earlier stance that it would bag all the Senate seats from Punjab, dismissing allegations of ‘Punjabi chauvinism’ by casting vote for party workers who did not belong to the province and negating any defections within the party.

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Lawmakers nearly came to blows and their tongues spewed a vitriol of Ps and Qs. Accusations rained down with the same fury inside the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly building as the downpour did outside on Thursday.

Senate polls were delayed for over four hours over rigging allegations levelled by the opposition parties who claimed treasury lawmakers were taking ballot papers out of the assembly’s premises to stamp them under the chief minister’s watch. As a result, the polling process was put on hold around noon and finally resumed again at 4:15pm, after the official time was over. The time to cast ballots was resultantly extended till 8pm. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf claimed opposition parties were throwing a spanner in the works to divert attention from their imminent loss. The opposition, on the other hand, placed the onus on the PTI, saying its lawmakers were violating rules by taking the ballot papers outside.

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Numerically, the PML-N is the largest party in the Balochistan Assembly. But the numerical strength couldn’t save the party embarrassment as its senior vice president, Sardar Yaqoob Nasir, could not win a seat in Thursday’s Senate elections.

Overall too, the party didn’t fare well. Having support of 28 legislators in the 65-member house, the party could grab only three seats. Interestingly, its smaller coalition partners, the National Party (NP) and Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), also won three seats each even though they have respectively 11 and 14 MPAs in the provincial legislature.

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The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) emerged triumphant on Thursday after their nominees bagged all the seven Senate seats up for grabs in Sindh.

The PPP picked up five seats while the MQM came away with two seats. The ruling party in Sindh, PPP, put down the victory to the successful strategy devised by it with the help of the MQM.



Both the parties notched up the required votes with the help of five ‘unidentified’ opposition lawmakers and two MPAs from the National Peoples Party (NPP), another opposition group that is going to join the PPP-led government in Sindh.

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