PML-N, PTI clash in Daska by-poll today

ISLAMABAD: A triangular fight is likely to take place in the by-election for NA-75 Daska today that will determine whether the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidate damages the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) more or hurts the nominee or the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate.

The TLP representative has so far gone unnoticed and the impact of the votes polled by him in the last by-election has not been adequately discussed publicly. The focus has been on the two main competitors. Although most TLP ticket-holders had not won an NA seat, they had scored a good number of votes in many constituencies in the 2018 general elections.

The votes polled by the TLP representative in NA-75 will not matter much if the margin of victory of one of the two principal aspirants turns out to be large. However, these will have a significant impact in case of a meagre lead.

In the 2018 general elections, the TLP contender had bagged 14,801 votes. But the margin of the win for PML-N’s Syed Iftikharul Hassan was massive as he had secured 101,769 votes compared to PTI’s Ali Asjad Malhi’s tally of 61,727. However, at the time an independent, who was an influential figure in the area, had clinched 57,769 votes.

The difference between the votes of Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar and Malhi in the aborted incomplete and highly controversial polls on Feb 19 was not very huge, that suggested that a close fight had taken place. The shocking incident of the mysterious disappearance of 23 presiding officers (POs) and their turning up in the office of the district returning officer (DRO) after 13 hours had blemished the credibility of the entire electoral process.

Because of the short time left before polling after the Supreme Court’s April 2 judgment upholding the Election Commission (ECP) decision of annulling the by-election, the competing challengers were not able to revive the level of their previous hectic campaign. The canvassing remained lacklustre. The candidates were also very careful so that they were not arraigned by the ECP for any violation of the code of conduct.

Of all the eight by-elections held over the past few months, the by-poll for NA-75 had been portrayed by both the PML-N and PTI as a do or die fight. They were eager to add one seat to their tally to benefit from it in the election for the Senate seat from Islamabad. But it could not materialise because the polling was declared void by the apex court.

Except one by-election for a former Fata seat, all the other recent by-polls were won by the opposition parties -- a boost to their anti-government campaign. The surprise result came from Nowshera where a provincial seat vacated by a PTI member was won by the PML-N nominee.

The ECP has acted efficiently to ensure that the election code was strictly enforced in letter and spirit. It even banned a scheduled rally of the PML-N, which quickly bowed before the direction. No leader of any side who was otherwise disallowed under the code to campaign in the constituency, dared to visit the area unlike the previous violations that they liberally committed. PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who faces no such restriction for not being an elected person or government office holder, could not go to the constituency because of her indisposition.

This time, the campaign remained restricted to mostly corner meetings or door-to-door canvassing. No big public rally or meeting was organised. Principally, the contestants conducted the campaign and were not aided by their senior leaders.

The ECP has directed all the POs to have smart phones so that they could be easily accessed and contacted. Further, they can register any complaint with the DRO or the Punjab election commissioner and promptly transmit the result to the designated authorities.

In the presence of polling agents of the candidates, the POs will fill up Form 45 (the result count) and send its picture to the DRO. In case they face any connectivity glitch, they will physically take the Form 45 to the DRO and explain to him the problem they encountered.

A perusal of Form 45 shows that it contains details like the National Assembly constituency number and name, number and name of polling station, number of male, female and total voters assigned to the polling station, names of the contesting candidates, number of valid votes, valid tendered votes and valid challenged votes polled in favour of each competing contender, total votes, number of votes, votes taken out from the ballot boxes, tendered votes, and challenged votes excluded from the count in accordance with the Elections Act, number of male and female voters polled, signatures of the PO and senior most assistant PO with their names and designations, and their thumb impressions and numbers of their computerised national identity cards.

Under the election rules, the result of the count will be prepared in Form-45 and the PO will put a copy of it in packet-16 labelled Result of the Count. The PO will prepare gender segregated statements of voters on Form-45 as required on the basis of male and female voters scored out from the electoral rolls in the relevant polling booths.