HRCP team, independent observers barred from Gilgit polling stations

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said independent election observers — including HRCP’s own team of observers in four cases — were not allowed into polling stations in Gilgit during the vote counting process.

The Gilgit Union of Journalists has made a similar claim. Additionally, the HRCP team was not allowed to enter a polling station in Sherqila and Ghizer-1 (GBA-19). In at least two cases, the HRCP team received reports that some voters had voted more than once at women’s polling stations in Ghanche and Diamir districts.

Speaking to the HRCP team, some candidates claimed that certain members of the ruling party, including Ali Amin Gandapur, Murad Saeed and Saifullah Niazi, had continued campaigning in Gilgit-Baltistan in violation of the Elections Act 2017. Another report claims that some candidates offered women’s organisations money to build their offices in lieu of support. Sadia Danish, a PPP candidate from constituency GBA-18, Diamir-4, allegedly received threats to her life as a result of which she was unable to enter her constituency for campaigning.

Although the polling process was largely peaceful and orderly, the shortage of polling staff meant that voting entailed long queues. Most polling stations were overcrowded and COVID-19-related SOPs were largely ignored by polling staff, polling agents and voters. In more remote areas, polling was delayed by up to an hour, in part due to poor weather. HRCP was concerned to see that no special arrangements were made to facilitate disabled persons at the polling stations.

A number of candidates, however, said they were pleased with the performance of the Election Commission, which had held an all-parties’ conference to evolve a code of conduct with consensus. The Election Commission reportedly issued over 300 notices to various political parties for violating the Elections Act 2017 but did not necessarily implement the provisions of the act despite such notices.

Alarmed that the closing of the polls Sunday was marred by large-scale aerial firing, HRCP urged the federal government, the opposition and the local administration to ensure that Gilgit remains peaceful amid reports of escalating tension over the results being announced.