Elections can be fair if institutions are firm and non-partisan

ISLAMABAD: The by-election to the NA-75 Daska constituency could establish some healthy precedents, the most important being that non-controversial, transparent and mutually acceptable polls are possible if the concerned institutions show honesty, firmness and act strictly according to the Constitution and law.

Happily, despite the controversial and aborted first round of polling, for a change both the victor and the loser are satisfied with the legitimacy of the polling process this time round.

The winner, Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, and the defeated candidate, Ali Asjad Malhi, accepted the result gracefully but the real winner is the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). With its professional and non-partisan measures, the ECP ensured that no hanky-panky is committed by either side to mar the exercise in any way.

Although the Special Assistant on Information to the Punjab Chief Minister, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, raised fingers at the role of the district returning officer (DRO), Malhi has demonstrated grace by felicitating his victorious rival and “specially congratulating” the ECP for organising the process in a fair and just manner.

The ECP too has spoken well this time of the concerned administration, police officials and paramilitary force for helping to conduct the by-polls in a manner mandated by the Constitution. When they had erred and violated the call of duty on Feb 19, they had earned severe censure from the ECP.

It was the strict vigilance of the ECP that fewer violations of its code of conduct were committed than in the past. Whenever the ECP found a leader of any contesting party transgressing, it promptly issued a show cause notice to him/ her.

It has been proven beyond a doubt that neither the fraudulent Feb 19 by-election would have been annulled nor the re-poll would have been held in such a commendable way had the ECP been compliant and spineless. The credit for making the ECP an assertive institution goes to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and its four members.

The voter turnout -- more than 43pc-- that usually remains very low in by-elections, was fairly good in the recent by-poll. Even the principal candidates had feared that the electorate’s participation would be poor after they could not exercise their right in a peaceful manner in the aborted round. However, this view proved to be misplaced.

It was believed that the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidate would cause a big impact on the votes of the main contenders. However, he managed to win just 8,268 votes compared to his 14,801 votes in the 2018 general elections, thereby failing to make a big impact on the final outcome.

Despite being in London, Nawaz Sharif was personally involved in overseeing the PML-N’s campaign and had deputed various party figures on different duties as Maryam Nawaz was indisposed and was unable to be very active. Hamza Shahbaz played a key role in the management of the electoral process for his party.

The losing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) nominee bagged 93,433 votes as against his tally of 61,727 in 2018, showing an increase of 31,727 votes. However, a PTI candidate (Usman Abid), who had contested in 2018 as an independent after not getting a ticket, had then clinched an impressive 57,778 votes. This time he did not stand in the by-election and extended his wholehearted support to Malhi.

On the other hand, the PML-N secured 110,076 votes compared to its 101,769 ballots in 2018, an increase of 8,307 votes. It managed an overall lead of 16,643 votes this time while in 2018, it had an edge of 40,042 ballots over the PTI.

Previously, a total of 246,449 votes had been cast for all the contestants. Of them, the four leading contenders, belonging to the PML-N, PTI and TLP and an independent, had bagged a large proportion --236,075 votes-- while the rest of the remaining votes had been shared by other candidates.

Out of the total valid 246,449 ballots in 2018, the PML-N had received 101,769 votes. This time, with a lesser number of votes cast -- 211,777 to be exact-- the opposition party clinched 110,076 votes -- more than previously.

The Daska by-election results show that the future electoral battle, at least in Punjab, will be mainly between the PML-N and PTI. No other party has any prospects of putting up an impressive showing.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) did support the PML-N in Daska and its leader Qamar Zaman Kaira had also attended a public meeting addressed by Maryam Nawaz. However, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is a tireless campaigner, is still required to do a lot more to revive the lost glory of his party in the majority province.

It was not only NA-75 but the Wazirabad seat of the Punjab Assembly too had been vacated after the death of the PML-N lawmaker. The party retained both the seats, exploding the myth that the ruling party always wins by-elections because of the incumbency factor.

Several hours before the unofficial results for NA-75 were announced, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah had said in a TV programme that, based on the statistics contained in Form 45, his party candidate would win by a margin of some 10,000 votes. Ultimately, the lead happened to be 16,643.