Holding poll on working day caused abysmal voter turnout: Fafen

ISLAMABAD: Election on a working day deterred a majority of voters from casting their ballots in the NA-240 (Korangi Karachi-II) by-poll that largely remained orderly but was overshadowed by two high-profile incidents of violence widely covered in the national media, reports the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen).

According to Fafen observers, the presence of party camps in close vicinity of polling stations is one of the most persistent and prominent violations of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) Code of Conduct for Political Parties and Contesting Candidates.

Supporters of rival candidates had set up camps around 88 per cent of the observed polling stations. Fafen observers reported the presence of armed persons at 22 per cent of these camps.

While these camps are generally set up by candidates to facilitate their voters in checking their serial numbers on electoral rolls, they are also the primary triggers of violence, particularly in hotly contested neighbourhoods. One such clash between rival parties in NA-240 outside Polling Station No. 52 led to the killing of one person.

Earlier, before noon, an incident of firing on the car of a key leader of a contesting party in the Landhi area, repeatedly covered by the national media, may have created a sense of fear in the constituency, discouraging potential voters to go out and vote.

In addition, the by-election being conducted on a working day led to a turnout that remained the lowest during any of the by-elections held since the General Elections 2018. Inhabited by mostly workers employed in the surrounding industrial areas, the constituency registered an abysmal 8.38 per cent voter turnout as compared to 37.38 per cent in GE 2018.

According to Form-47 (Provisional Consolidated Statement of Results of the Count), only 44,388 (31,677 men and 12,711 women) of a total of 529,855 registered voters (294,385 men and 235,470 women) exercised their right to vote on June 16, 2022.

As many as 440 ballots were excluded from the count, while the margin of victory between the winner and the runner-up was a mere 64 votes. Fafen observers reported that the voting process remained largely compliant with the procedure provided in the Elections Act 2017, the Elections Rules 2017 and the ECP’s instructional handbooks.

However, they reported some procedural irregularities at polling stations, such as setting up of party camps outside the polling stations, missing or improperly placed secrecy screens at polling booths, and skipping out necessary voter verification steps, which indicate the need for greater investments in training as well as increased scrutiny of officials before their selection for election duties.

The by-election was compelled due to the death of Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, who had won this constituency on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan’s (MQM-P) ticket by securing 61,165 (34 per cent) of the polled votes during GE 2018, while the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) Muhammad Asif was the runner-up bagging 30,535 (17 per cent) of the polled votes.

Seven political parties — the MQM-P, the TLP, the Grand Democratic Alliance, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Pak Sarzameen Party and the Pakistan Peoples Party — had fielded their candidates for the by-poll, while 18 candidates contested independently.

The ECP had set up 309 polling stations (100 male, 99 female and 110 combined), with 208 polling stations having over 1,200 voters assigned to them, which was above the legally advisable limit under Section 59(3) of the Elections Act 2017.

The election law had included a maximum limit of voters to be assigned to a polling station in the interest of smooth voting and ensuring that the polling stations do not get cramped and crowded with voters. The law requires the returning officers to document categorical reasons for assigning more voters than the permissible limit to any polling station.

This report is based on the observation of 247 polling booths at 67 polling stations spread across the constituency by a total of 18 non-partisan, trained and duly accredited observers (eight men and 10 women). This includes the observation of the counting process at 13 polling stations.