June 01, 2015
News
FAFEN records impressive voter turnout
* As many as 81 incidents of violence reported in 19 districts *FAFEN proposes federal framework legislation to define ECP’s role to hold, free, fair and transparent LG polls
INPPESHAWAR: An impressive number of voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa turned out to elect their local council representatives on Saturday in the largest-ever electoral exercise in the province, says Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
Although the campaign period remained peaceful to a large extent, Election Day was marked by administrative mismanagement, extremely slow processing of voters, procedural irregularities and several reports of violence and bar on women voters.
Despite the massive scale and evolving legislation and regulatory framework, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) managed to conduct the polls on the date assigned by the Supreme Court in its order on March 6.
In line with its mandate to observe the elections and advocate for electoral reforms for transparent, accountable and responsive elections, which can enable voters and candidates to exercise their electoral rights without any inducement and fear, FAFEN conducted an assessment of the pre-election processes in 19 districts and observed the elections in all 24 districts.
FAFEN’s initial findings showed that political parties and contesting candidates, particularly for tehsil and district councils, were freely breaching the electoral law that bars all sorts of canvassing within a 200 meters radius around polling stations. Campaigning of candidates went on freely at party camps set up close to the polling stations, with no action reported from anywhere to curb these activities.
Nearly 13% of the polling stations were reported to have opened after the official voting time of 8am. District-wise, these delays were reported from 14 out of 24 districts. Most instances of delayed start were reported from Mardan, followed by Peshawar, Lakki Marwat, Swabi, Bannu, Swat and Karak.
The delay in opening was caused by various reasons, such as late arrival of polling officials; logistical arrangements; unavailability of essential election material (voters’ lists, stationary, ballot boxes etc.) and erroneous printing of ballot papers. Polling was also delayed due to overzealous voters and polling agents who interfered with the work of polling officials.
The polling scheme was not finalized to accommodate the increase in voters as well as the complex ballot processing requirements envisaged by the KP Local Government Act. The ECP also did not publish a detailed district-wise polling scheme on its website.
Although three assistant presiding officers were deployed at every polling booth to process six to seven ballot papers, the arrangement remained inadequate as long queues were observed inside and outside most polling stations.
A total of 81 incidents of violence were reported from 19 districts, indicating a highly tense political environment on the day. The incidents included clashes between supporters of contesting candidates, incidents of aerial firing, brawls among supporters of contesting parties and scuffles between voters and polling/security officials. Violence incidents were also reported in women’s polling stations.
FAFEN observers also reported 19 incidents of polling stations being captured by the supporters of contesting candidates and political parties in nine districts. Around 26% of such incidents were reported from Haripur, followed by 16% each from Peshawar and Bannu.
Although the participation of women voters improved considerably compared to previous polls in the province, obstacles to women’s voting were, nevertheless, prevalent in several areas.
Incidents of barring women from voting were reported from at least one polling station in 80 out of 462 wards. Although women were seen voting at some polling stations in Lower Dir (where they were barred in a recent by-election), incidents of barring women were reported from at least one polling station in 17 wards.
In the other 63 wards, women were disenfranchised in at least one polling station due to systematic or institutional issues, such as absence of female polling staff, presence of male staff at female polling stations, absence of female polling stations/booths or shared entrance for both men and women at combined polling stations.
A local government election system inspiring public confidence is critical to strengthening democracy in Pakistan. The existing legal and administrative frameworks as proposed/enacted by the provinces for the conduct of local government elections, are inadequate to meet internationally accepted and constitutionally endorsed standards of electoral freedom, fairness, neutrality and transparency.
Having observed the above-mentioned irregularities and misconduct, FAFEN proposes a federal framework legislation to define the role of the ECP to conduct consistent, free, fair and transparent local government elections.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk