Who will take the initiative to bring about electoral reforms in Pakistan when electoral manipulation has been a persistent issue in the country’s political history? This question has been unanswered for a long time and is still relevant today, as the opposition party PTI has announced countrywide strikes against alleged rigging.
Why did the Result Transmission System (RTS) of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) fail? It needs to be addressed as this system didn’t fail the first time. The PTI has announced nationwide protests from tomorrow (Friday) challenging the by-poll results. In this bi-election, PMLN came up as a major winning party.
On Sunday, elections were held for five National Assembly seats, two each in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one in Sindh. 12 provincial seats were also up for grabs. PMLN won two NA seats from Punjab, SIC and an independent candidate secured one each from KP, and PPP secured the NA-196 seat in Sindh. In Punjab, PMLN won nine provincial seats, while PPP, PMLQ, and IPP won one seat each. In KP, one provincial seat each was won by SIC and an independent candidate.
In the Baluchistan election, PMLN and BNP Mengal won one provincial seat each, while ANP secured one in PB-50 after re-polling. The PTI rejected these results and accused the ECP and Punjab government of irregularities. The Sunny Itihad Council’s Hamid Khan demanded accountability and a case against both of them.
According to PTI leadership, the party’s founder was taken aback by the results of the by-elections and alleged that the results were manipulated. He condemned the play that was staged under the guise of the elections and stated that the people have the right to ensure the fair counting of the votes. The PTI also accused that the boxes were already filled in Punjab during this election and its results were pre-planned.
It is worth noting that the general election of 2024, which took place in Pakistan, was contested by every political party, including the ruling party. All parties raised concerns about the fairness and credibility of the election, including PPP, PMLN, PTI, JUIF, JI, and others. The courts are currently hearing petitions regarding the irregularities that occurred during the election. The election was held amidst allegations of pre-poll rigging allegedly by the military in favor of a particular political party. Before the election, PTI was denied its electoral symbol, and on election day, the authorities concerned shut down internet services.
On the day after the elections, the ECP was supposed to release the provisional results. Initially, the results showed that the PTI had emerged as the clear winner in both national and provincial assembly seats. However, in the early morning, the system was reported to have crashed. When the system was restored, the updated results were found to be inconsistent with the previous ones. The PMLN, earlier declared as the winner in 30 constituencies and competing on 10 PA seats, came up winning with 137 seats in total.
Commissioner Rawalpindi Division’s statement was another spot on the credibility of this election in which he confessed his complicity in electoral rigging by returning officers under his command to manipulate results. The ECP denied those accusations classing them as unfounded and motivated by self-promotion, adding that a divisional commissioner had no direct role in the electoral process. Meanwhile, the same commissioner who was also under arrest retracted his claims and apologized to the ECP.
Foreign media, observers, and countries such as the USA, UK, and the European Union have raised concerns about the fairness of the recent elections. In contrast, the PTI claimed that the 2018 general elections were the fairest, as they resulted in the party coming into power. However, in the latest elections, the RTS failed suddenly, leading to allegations of rigging in favor of the PTI.
It is worth noting that as far back as 2012, the Supreme Court (SC) acknowledged significant evidence of rigging in the 1990 elections. The court also highlighted the illegal distribution of Rs 140 million from the state treasury to opposition politicians to prevent the PPP’s victory. The SC’s ruling in the Asghar Khan case was a significant judicial acknowledgment of election rigging. In short, there is no election in the history of Pakistan whose credibility was not questioned, starting right after 1947 when Pakistan came into existence.
In 1960, Pakistan conducted a referendum that marked President Ayub Khan’s first popular vote after the parliamentary system was suspended in 1958. Before the official vote count, media reports highlighted Mr. Ayub Khan’s pervasive plans. In the 1977 elections, there were allegations of manipulation, including the dissolution and replacement of governments in Baluchistan and North-West Frontier Province with PPP-led administrations. This led to the Larkana plan, which involved setting up a special election cell within the federal ministry to influence election outcomes by collaborating with administrations.
Then it finally led General Zia-ul-Haq to depose the elected government on 5 July 1977 by imposing martial law. The manipulation of the 1990 election can be traced back in the form of Islami Jamhoori Itihad which former ISI Chief Hamid Gul orchestrated to counter Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In 1997, Mr. Nawaz Sharif won the election while the PPP saw its seats dramatically reduce from 89 to 18. The PPP’s decline was also influenced by the assassination of Murtaza Bhutto and corruption charges against Asif Ali Zardari.
Even then the international observers from the European Union and the Commonwealth of Nations said that it could not be described as a free and fair election. The 2002 elections marked the victory of the PMLQ which was a party established shortly before the elections. In continuity, even Sunday’s bi-polls are being alleged as rigged. In the given situation, it is very interesting that almost every major political party that has been alleging rigging of polls remained in power but never took the initiative to bring such reforms that could make the coming election uncontroversial. Even today’s opposition that was in power from 2018 to 2023 didn’t take any such step and now again is ready to come rods challenging the electoral credibility. Who will take such a step and when is a question that still prevails and for how long more is not known?