Business Recorder Editorial July 19, 2018

Dirtiest elections

A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) delegation after meeting the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in Islamabad has delivered a damning indictment of the general elections a mere week away, in a press conference. HRCP spokesperson I A Rehman characterised these coming elections as the dirtiest, most micromanaged and most participated in polls in the country’s history. He and others in the HRCP delegation went on to describe a litany of complaints they had received from candidates pressurised to return party tickets. HRCP conveyed to the CEC its reservations regarding the deployment of troops inside the polling stations. Although the CEC assured them the troops would not go inside the election booths, the 350,000 security personnel deployed outside and inside polling stations have military functionaries amongst them who have been assigned magistrates’ powers on the premises. Officials have also been found trying to influence the outcome of the July 25 polls in various ways. As in the 2013 elections, this time round too some political parties have been targeted by terrorists while favoured ones have had an unimpeded run. HRCP finds anti-terrorism cases instituted against political workers condemnable. Curbs on the content and distribution of media were also discussed with the CEC as was the reluctance of some media houses to carry certain parties’ advertisements. HRCP also pointed out that proscribed organisations were being mainstreamed by being allowed to participate in the elections under various banners. Things had reached a pretty pass when people were frightened of openly claiming their political affiliations. Hate speech was flourishing under the nose of the CEC. Similar concerns have been voiced in the Senate as well as by the leaderships of the political parties feeling the selective squeezing of the political class, worries about the participation by banned groups in the elections and the perceived overweening role of the military in the polls, all of which has contributed to producing an environment of fear.

The concerns expressed by the HRCP, political parties feeling the heat from the establishment and informed analysts and commentators have thrown the upcoming election into a vortex of controversy and negative vibes. Things have reached a point where it is no longer possible to credibly claim that the polls will be free, fair and transparent. In these circumstances, fears are being expressed by a wide range of opinion that the results of these elections may or may not prove acceptable to all the stakeholders across the board. That would obviously create a huge political crisis, an outcome the country in its present precarious economic, security and foreign policy challenges can ill afford. Even if that apocalyptic foreboding is somehow avoided, the parliament to emerge from this election is unlikely to provide a simple majority to any party in a badly divided polity. A hung parliament may throw up a weak, disparate, unwieldy coalition government unable to cope with the country’s myriads of problems and issues. Machinations, pre-poll rigging and gerrymandering elections is not new in our unfortunate history. However, amidst all the doom and gloom, some positives should perhaps not be lost sight of. This would be the third consecutive exercise of universal franchise in Pakistan’s chequered political history. While this continuity can only be welcomed as a rare bit of good news by all who hold the interests of the country above all partisan considerations, there is an antidote to all the manipulations, tricks, pressures and other means of denying a level playing field to all parties. The only way such skullduggery has been defeated here and elsewhere in the past is by the massive exercise of the people’s right to vote. As it is, the Pakistani electorate no longer resembles the ‘dumb, driven cattle’ of the traditional political elite’s preference. Voter awareness and even fierce ‘accountability’ in constituencies of the usual candidates is a new feature of the polls this time round. The people do have a choice. If they turn out massively to record their political preferences on July 25 freely and without being cowed, all the manipulators could be defeated and the will of the people prevail.