Electoral troubles

Our struggles with democracy continue. But we seem to be making some headway in enforcing the laws that exist and ensuring they are not violated to discriminate against specific groups of citizens. Such a violation would be the most undemocratic practice possible. The use of this practice in Lower Dir has resulted in the PK-95 by-poll held on May 7 being declared null and void by the ECP, since no woman voted at any polling station set up for the exercise. There are 5,300 registered women voters in the constituency, which was vacated by JI Amir Sirajul Haq after he was elected senator. The JI candidate contesting the by-poll collected the largest number of votes, but in a landmark decision welcomed by activists and the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, the ECP has declined to notify the results or accept them. A new by-election will be called. The message going out is a strong one and we hope it has been heard.
There are other messages too that need to be sent out equally strongly. The violence-marred local government elections recently completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have left us with a lot of questions and plenty of doubts. With the JI – an election partner of the PTI – making allegations of rigging, Imran Khan has indicated that he is willing for a re-conduct of the polls under army supervision. He has, however, taken no responsibility on the part of his government for anything going wrong or for the violence that killed at least 11 people. A re-election is also no easy exercise given the expenses involved and the scale of local government voting which involves hundreds of seats and a far larger number of candidates. What we need to do is examine our system of conducting polls. The chain of events in KP, which also led to the arrest of former information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, indicates all is not well. It has also been far from well in the case of women and their right to vote. They have been denied this time and again with no notice taken of the

problem. Essentially, agreements reached between male politicians result in women being kept away from the polling stations. We must hope the ECP’s tough action in the case of the Lower Dir by-poll will prevent this from being repeated. It is essential that women are able to vote and also that we find a way to move towards an electoral system where so many allegations of wrongdoing, rigging, violence and murder do not pour forth as soon as the exercise is completed.