The vote

Election Day came and went – and the country saw voters trying to have their say in what is the largest democratic exercise in a country. Just the act of voting in Pakistan requires bravery. In the lead-up to Election 2018, multiple political rallies were targeted by militants, and on Election Day itself 31 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside a polling station in Quetta. The results of the election are still trickling in at the time of writing this editorial, but it appears that predictions that the PTI would be the largest party and there would be a hung parliament have largely proven correct. It is important to note that if these elections are to be remembered as free and fair, the process of forming a governing coalition has to be organic.

It can also be safely said that the PML-N seems to have lost out the most in these elections. This too is not much of a surprise, given the events of the months before the elections. From the tentative results received till late Wednesday night, it seems the party has gone from an outright majority to only being the second largest party, and its grip on the provincial government in Punjab may even have been be loosened, with some reports even indicating that it could lose the province. Again going by tentative results, Karachi too became a closely-contested battleground as the MQM-Pakistan lost ground to the PTI. Both the PML-N and the PTI can plausibly claim that the downturn in their fortunes was due to issues beyond their control – the legal woes of the PML-N and law-enforcement action against the MQM-Pakistan which caused deep divisions in the two parties, allowing their opponents to take advantage.

The one question hanging over the elections is whether they were conducted fairly. There have certainly been some worrying allegations from many political parties. The PML-N and other political parties including the PPP, MQM-P and the PSP complained that their polling agents were asked to leave while votes were still being counted. The PML-N alleged that counting was stopped in constituencies where its nominees were winning. These parties have also complained that instead of following the law and giving polling agents voting tallies on the official Form 45, officials scribbled them on scraps of power. If this is true, it would be a black mark on the elections and sustain certain narratives. It is the job of the Election Commission of Pakistan to investigate every allegation. Encouragingly, the ECP has said it will investigate this matter. Already, it is safe to say that, from the pre-election process right down to Election Day, there has been an atmosphere of cynicism regarding the whole exercise. While every election sees its share of complaints, it seems this time almost all parties have the same complaint. We hope these matters are investigated and resolved soon since we will now have a new parliament which needs to start with some degree of harmony and the ability to work collectively so that the future of the country can be built step by step.