Procedural irregularities persist, but polls were relatively better managed: Fafen

Karachi

People went to a peaceful election held in two constituencies of Karachi amid heavy presence of security forces and an unusually assertive Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seen to be enforcing the election rules, says the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) in its election observation report issued on Thursday.

However, procedural irregularities were observed to have persisted in the two by-elections with Fafen observers reporting an average of 4.8 violations per polling station. 

However, being managed by ECP officials acting as District Returning and Returning Officers and held under the security cover of Rangers who were also vested with the magisterial powers, the elections were relatively better managed keeping in view the traditional context of Karachi where quality of elections has remained questionable. 

The two by-elections followed the enforcement plan as devised for the one held in NA-246 last year whose quality was appreciated by all political parties.

Election fervor in NA-245 (Karachi-VII), however, dampened after the last minute withdrawal of the PTI candidate in favour of MQM. Election in PS-115 (Karachi-XXVII) was tightly contested in a race among the candidates of MQM, PTI, PPP and MQM-H. 

The turnout in the two constituencies, however, remained visibly low, although the exact percentage of polled votes will be clear with the final result of the two constituencies are announced by the ECP.

Notwithstanding a few instances of violence reported by FAFEN observers and media, the Election Day remained peaceful and clearly better organized. The removal of party camps from outside a number of polling stations during the day established ECP’s resolve to strengthen its enforcement of electoral laws and rules, improving the polling environment for voters.

By-election in NA-245 was necessitated by the resignation of MQM’s Rehan Hashmi after his election as Vice-Chairman of a union committee in the recently held local government elections in Sindh. 

Hashmi polled 115,776 votes in 2013 against PTI’s Muhammad Riaz Haider who bagged 54,937 votes.

As many as 16 candidates ran for by-election in this urban constituency of Karachi, which spans over nine union committees. In addition, some areas of UC Kalyana Colony are also a part of this constituency. The constituency has remained a stronghold of the MQM, which has won it in general elections in 2002, 2008 and 2013.

The NA-245 showed an increase of seven percent in registered voters –409,655 (221,242 male and 188,413 female) for by-election as compared to 383,748 (208,050 male and 175,698 female) in general elections 2013. However, the number of polling stations for the two elections remained the same – 277 polling stations (159 combined and 34 each for men and women) with 796 polling booths (407 for men and 389 for women).

Similarly, the PS-115 (Karachi-XXVII) was compelled by the resignation of MQM’s Arshad Abdullah Vohra, who was recently elected as chairman of a union committee in the local government election. Vohra won the seat in the general elections of 2013, polling 55,804 votes against PTI’s Hamza Nafeez’s 18,622 votes.

As many as 14 candidates ran for this provincial constituency in urban Karachi where the registered voters increased to 162,614 (90,413 men and 72,201 men) from 155,952 voters (86,021 men and 69,931 women) registered for 2013 general elections. As many as 83 combined polling stations were setup for the by-election with 166 male and 166 female polling booths.