By-polls to cost kitty a lot

ISLAMABAD: A whopping amount of state funds will be spent on holding numerous by-elections to fill the seats vacated by those who will win from more than one constituency.

At least an amount of Rs60 million will be needed to arrange by-poll to a National Assembly seat, a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The News when contacted. He did not wish to be identified. Similarly, he said, a minimum of Rs40 million would be required to organise by-election to a provincial seat.

Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) President Ahmad Bilal Mehboob told this correspondent when approached that spending money on such by-elections is sheer waste of public money. “The practice is disruption of the system.”

He said that nobody in Canada and Britain was permitted to contest for two or more seats and everyone has to fight from only one constituency. In India, he said, contesting candidates can compete for a maximum of two seats while in Pakistan there is no limit.

Ironically, Ahmad Bilal Mehboob said those who are enjoying the luxury of trying their luck from two or more seats were not asked to pay the “price” for it.

The ECP official said since the amount of honorarium for the presiding officers and other election related staff has also been significantly raised, the cost of by-elections will go up proportionately. Likewise, the factors that the number of voters has increased and imported ballot papers is used would also raise the financial implications for the public kitty, he said adding that such by-polls unnecessarily put strain on the ECP as well.

In addition, such by-elections also call for heavy expenses by the parties and their candidates.

The by-elections have traditionally been very costly compared to the parliamentary polls. Leading present and past politicians, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and some others have been aspiring for more than one seat in different provinces.

Through this exercise, they demonstrate their popularity across Pakistan and claim that they are doing so on the demand of their supporters in these areas.

But an element of fear can also not be ruled out among such contestants that they will be able to bag at least one of the seats they are fighting for, enabling them to land in the national or provincial legislature.

However, multiple candidatures have their own serious downside. If the results of the elections are very close, the political parties having many candidatures will suffer and may have to pay heavily as on the day vote of confidence is to be held for future leader of House (prime minister or chief minister), they will be deprived of the additional seats they have won. The politicians contesting from multiple constituencies will have to choose one seat and the remaining will go vacant to be filed in by-elections. Hence, these will not be counted towards their final tally.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will lose four seats--three by Shahbaz Sharif and one by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi – if they are victorious from all the constituencies they are contesting. PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif has filed nominations papers for Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan, Karachi and Swat seats. Abbasi is in the race from Murree-Kahuta (Rawalpindi) and Islamabad.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will suffer even more if the assumption that its leaders fighting for multiple seats will clinch all of them is to be attached due credence. It would mean that the PTI will lose nine seats in the ultimate count-- four of Imran Khan and two of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and one each of Maj (R) Tahir Sadiq, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Makhdoom Khusru Bakhatiar.

Thus, the PTI has handicapped itself triple times more than the PML-N due to its extra enthusiasm without realising the ensuing disadvantage. Imran Khan is the party candidate for Islamabad, Lahore, Mianwali, Bannu and Karachi seats of the National Assembly.

Apart from the National Assembly seats where by-elections will be necessitated, there will be a number of provincial constituencies where such exercise will have to be held because they will also be vacated by those who have won both national and provincial seats or a national and a provincial seat.

Another downside is that the parties whose representatives have vacated seats for having returned from more than one constituency may not be able to retain them in the by-elections. In 2013, Imran Khan had secured three out of four seats he had stood for.

He had won from Rawalpindi, Mianwali and Peshawar but was defeated in Lahore. In the by-poll, the PTI had lost Mianwali and Peshawar by-elections.