Success in Haripur

In an electoral contest fought out on a seat that it has traditionally dominated, the PML-N successfully warded off a challenge from the PTI, winning Haripur’s NA-19 contest by a large margin at the end of the day. According to unofficial results, the PML-N’s Babar Nawaz Khan claimed the seat by taking 135,809 votes, well ahead of his closest rival Raja Aamir Zaman of the PTI, who received 89,716 votes. The success for the PML-N – despite the absence of Omar Ayub Khan, its previous candidate for the seat, whose family has played a strong political role in the area for years – puts it several strides ahead of the PTI in terms of electoral politics. It also signifies that the ruling party does not appear to be as unpopular and as unsuccessful as the PTI has been indicating in its various speeches, with the voters of Haripur putting their faith strongly behind its candidate. The fact that Babar Nawaz’s father, Akram Nawaz – a former MPA from the area who was assassinated – had done a considerable amount for the development of the region, acted in his favour. But this was not the only factor in his success in an election which 30 percent of registered voters come out and vote.
The low turnout is of course disturbing and shows a lack of enthusiasm in politics. But then, it is not unusual for by-poll turnouts to be low given that there is none of the national level hype we see during a general election. The PTI certainly attempted to create hype. The constituency was visited before polling day by Reham Khan, who called for it to be given as a ‘gift’ to her. The appeal does not seem to have found much weight with voters who largely ignored it. The indications are that solid work goes much further than mere words and rhetoric. The fact that the PTI is clearly the second strongest party in this constituency reflects an important trend and a change in old political patterns. It is difficult to say whether the recent rifts within the PTI damaged its candidate and to what extent. Certainly, the setbacks the party has faced must have had some impact on Aamir Zaman. Overall, the good organisation by the Election Commission reported from NA-19 is good news for all of us and augurs well for future elections in the country. The biometric system with necessary machinery was used at some 30 polling stations and the fact that this too has been tested means there is even more hope of future elections proceeding smoothly and with less controversy.