Rigging allegations that refuse to die down

Published May 31, 2013
Supporters of Imran Khan stage a protest against the vote rigging in Karachi.–Photo by AFP
Supporters of Imran Khan stage a protest against the vote rigging in Karachi.–Photo by AFP

ISLAMABAD: The talk of rigging in the elections refuses to die down. Although, largely, political parties have accepted the results of the May 11 elections, there is hardly a mainstream political party, be on the winning or losing side, which didn’t raise the issue of rigging.

If the PTI is complaining about stealing of its mandate in Lahore and Karachi, the JUI-F has hurled similar accusations at their political opponents in Khyber Pakhtukhwa.

Then the 10-party alliance in Sindh, of which the PM-N is a member, has registered complaints with the provincial election commission against the lack of transparency in polling in the interior of Sindh, which favoured its political rivals.

In Balochistan, the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) is pointing fingers at the establishment for foul play against its candidates.

As a result, when on the one hand the 2013 general elections are being hailed for the overall 55 per cent turnout, best in the electoral history of the country, it has also attracted an unprecedented level of criticism for mismanagement at the polling station level.

From candidates, independent observers to voters, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should have forcefully established its writ on the day of the elections, allowing the voters to use their right and polling staff to more effectively perform their duties.

The absence of law enforcers inside polling stations in areas known for rigging, analysts say, cast serious doubts on the ECP.

On the incidences of rigging, a senior ECP official explained a host of limitations which the commission had to face in conducting the elections.

“For a headmaster of a local school or a college lecturer who performed duties as a presiding officer, local politicians are more important than anybody else. Therefore, they try their level best to benefit the candidates of their choice,” said the ECP official.

Then the ECP has to deal with the returning officers who consider themselves all powerful as the representatives of the judiciary.

They all are part of the well-entrenched political system where they have their personal likes and dislikes in terms of political parties, he added. Given the chance they do try to manipulate the election results, the official observed.

The evidence collected by Fafen corroborates the assertion made by the ECP official that how presiding officers and ROs used their influence to alter the election results in favour of candidates of their liking.

Take, for instance, the polling station number 222 of NA-92, where 529 votes were polled against the actual number of registered votes which was 479. The difference of polled and actual votes was even horrendous in NA-201’s polling station number 192.

According to Fafen, the actual number of registered voters in this polling station was 1,025 but as many as 1,774 votes were shown as polled. In polling station number 111 of NA-137, cutting and overwriting by the presiding officer on the statement of the count was shown.

Talking to Dawn, Fafen chief Muddassar Rizvi said more such irregularities could be determined once the ECP uploads Form XIV (statement of the count), Form XV (ballot paper account), Form VI (consolidation statement of the results of the count) and Form XVII (result of the count) for full public scrutiny.

As per the Fafen assessment, out of 264 statements of the count from 26 constituencies, the presiding officers in two-thirds of the polling stations did not fill out the specific sections of the form correctly, raising concern that the ECP may not be able to provide the accurate information.

“We are not undermining the validity or authenticity of the elections, but only highlighting the gray areas which needed to be taken care of by the ECP for future elections,” said Mr Rizvi.

He added that if the ECP was really interested in taking corrective measures it had to investigate reported cases of rigging and duly penalise the presiding officers and ROs for playing with the mandate of the people. This is very important for the future elections, added Mr Rizvi.

Talking to Dawn, Sardar Bahadur Ahmad Khan Sehar, a former federal minister for defence production and a strong PPP candidate from NA-181, district Layyah, said he had improved his tally of votes of around 59,000 from the last general elections which he won to over 81,000 votes this time.

But even then he was declared the runner up.

Sahibzada Faizul Hassan, who in 2008 got around 57,000 votes, won the May 11 elections with a staggering count of around 120,000 votes. Sardar Sehar too blamed the ROs for manipulating the result in favour of his opponent.

He said there were many polling stations in his constituency where the number of votes polled was more than the registered votes.

Asked if he planned to go to the election tribunal to challenge the election result, Mr Sehar, said: “Our judicial system works too slow and there are many cases where candidates of 2008 elections are still waiting for the outcome. Hence, it's better to wait for the next elections than wasting money on the lawyers.”

Malik Amin Aslam of the PTI is contesting the change in the consolidated statement of results from his NA-57, which he claimed was made to benefit his opponent of PML-N’s Sheikh Aftab.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Aslam said until May 12 morning on the basis of vote count from polling stations he was winning with a margin of 2,000 votes.

But in the final result, he was shown as the runner-up with his opponent having a lead of around 4,000 votes.

“Despite my repeated complaints, the RO refused a re-count. When the ECP directed the RO for recounting on May 15, my opponent from nowhere brought a stay order from the Lahore High Court against rechecking of the result. On May 16, I got the stay order vacated and went back to the ECP on May 17 with the request for recounting. Now the commission has refused to accept my application,” Mr Aslam narrated his ordeal.

When asked if he would use the option of election tribunal, he said in 2008 he lost the election with a difference of just 300 votes, and approached the tribunal to contest the result which was still pending.

“I am only demanding recounting which the ECP should allow. I have no trust in the tribunals which this time will be manned by retired district and sessions judges.”

Former secretary ECP Kanwar Dilshad also blamed the incidences of rigging on the ROs. As per Mr Dilshad’s argument, the ROs for their vested interests do try to manipulate the election results.

However, this time the practice was widespread which warranted a thorough investigation.

Sharing his experience of heading the ECP, Mr Dilshad explained that since the ROs were responsible for compilation of results at the constituency level, they can manage, as many of them did on May 11, to distort the original results.

Since this time, the election results were transferred to the ECP headquarters through computers, final counting of votes was also reportedly altered in certain cases.

With the new National Assembly set to meet on Saturday, Mr Dilshad proposed setting up of an all-parties parliamentary commission to look into the cases of election fraud so that in future more transparent and fair elections can be held.

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