PML-N, PTI collide in Daska poll today

ISLAMABAD: A triangular fight is likely to take place in the by-election for NA-75 Daska today that will determine whether the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidate damages the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) more or hurts the nominee or the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate.

The TLP representative has so far gone unnoticed and the impact of the votes polled by him in the last by-election has not been adequately discussed publicly. The focus has been on the two main competitors. Although most TLP ticket-holders had not won an NA seat, they had scored a good number of votes in many constituencies in the 2018 general elections.

The votes polled by the TLP representative in NA-75 will not matter much if the margin of victory of one of the two principal aspirants turns out to be large. However, these will have a significant impact in case of a meagre lead.

In the 2018 general elections, the TLP contender had bagged 14,801 votes. But the margin of the win for PML-N’s Syed Iftikharul Hassan was massive as he had secured 101,769 votes compared to PTI’s Ali Asjad Malhi’s tally of 61,727. However, at the time an independent, who was an influential figure in the area, had clinched 57,769 votes.

The difference between the votes of Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar and Malhi in the aborted incomplete and highly controversial polls on Feb 19 was not very huge, that suggested that a close fight had taken place. The shocking incident of the mysterious disappearance of 23 presiding officers (POs) and their turning up in the office of the district returning officer (DRO) after 13 hours had blemished the credibility of the entire electoral process.

Because of the short time left before polling after the Supreme Court’s April 2 judgment upholding the Election Commission (ECP) decision of annulling the by-election, the competing challengers were not able to revive the level of their previous hectic campaign. The canvassing remained lacklustre. The candidates were also very careful so that they were not arraigned by the ECP for any violation of the code of conduct.