The local government elections held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on May 30 made headlines for all the wrong reasons due to the unusually high incidents of violence, administrative mismanagement, complex and time-consuming voting procedures, widespread irregularities and curbs on women to vote in certain areas.

There were many positives with regard to the elections, but these were overshadowed by the happenings on the polling day. A keenly awaited democratic exercise that took place after more than 10 years in the province became mired in controversy due to a host of factors.

Almost all the participating political parties and every losing candidate alleged that they were deprived of victory due to rigging. Calls for re-election were made, but the parties took care not to demand re-polling in districts and constituencies where their candidates had emerged victorious.

The Awami National Party (ANP), which did well considering its crushing defeat two years ago in the general election, went to the extent of demanding the resignation of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government for failing to prevent violence and rigging and ensuring free, fair and transparent polls. It sought fresh local government elections under a caretaker administration because the ruling PTI could not be trusted to organise credible polls. Ironically, the ANP had opposed the calls for resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the PTI chief Imran Khan, who alleged that the PML-N government had come into power through rigging in the May 2013 general election.

Under pressure from the opposition and even his allied parties such as the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP), Imran Khan offered re-elections under the supervision of the Pakistan Army provided all the political parties made this demand. Imran Khan’s confidence also stemmed from the fact that the PTI had performed well in the local government elections despite the formidable challenge posed to it by the tripartite alliance of the ANP, PPP and JUI-F. Though it is true that the opposition alliance fell apart in some districts, the same was the case with the ruling coalition as PTI, JI and AJIP candidates contested against each other in many places. However, the JI and AJIP are in no mood to quit the PTI-headed provincial government because the benefits of staying in power are far more than shifting to the opposition at this stage when the next general elections due in 2018 are still far away.

It is frustrating that all the positive things about the local government elections were forgotten due to the chaos generated by the shortcomings on the day of polling. Some facts concerning these elections were heart-warming.

One, this was the largest-ever electoral exercise in the history of the province. The scale of the polls was huge and impressive. The number of voters eligible to vote in 24 districts out of the 25 in the province was 13.1 million. It would have been higher if the election in Kohistan had not been stayed by the Peshawar High Court due to a petition challenging the bifurcation of this remote and mountainous district into two.

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The number of total candidates for all tiers of the local government was 84,420. There were a lot more candidates than the seats reserved for the district, tehsil and general councillors and those for women, peasants and workers and the youth. The exception was the minorities, who had 3,339 reserved and only 349 candidates. The massive number of contestants meant that they personally reached most voters, streets, neighbourhoods and villages. They not only sought votes, but also discussed the electorate’s problems and aspirations and publicly made promises to resolve them if voted to victory. The polls led to the election of 41,762 councillors including those for district, tehsil, neighbourhood and village councils. They have now become stakeholders in the ruling set-up as the provincial government has promised to allocate 30 percent of the budget to the elected local governments and give them more powers than the past.

Two, as mentioned by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) managed to conduct the polls on the date assigned to it by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in its order of March 6, 2015 despite the massive scale and evolving legislation and regulatory framework required for the purpose. On its part, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government also took it as a challenge and agreed to undertake the large and risky electoral exercise. Though Imran Khan was unable to fulfil his promise to organise local government elections within 90 days after coming into power, his party’s government in the province still managed to do so ahead of the PML-N government in Punjab and that of the PPP in Sindh. Of course, Balochistan under its coalition government of the National Party (NP), the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP, and PML-N took the lead in holding the local government polls.

Three, the run-up to the Election Day on May 30 had been largely peaceful. The campaign period saw parties and candidates campaigning peacefully and tolerating criticism. Despite the enthusiasm and involvement of so many people in the elections, there was no major outbreak of violence anywhere in the militancy-hit province until the polling day. However, it seemed pent-up feelings were waiting to burst open when the polling opened and the time of reckoning arrived.

Four, as many as 11,221 polling stations were set up across the province for the male and female voters. This was a task of mega proportions and needed proper homework. It was generally handled well, but there were bound to be shortcomings.

The high number of polling stations meant that thousands of polling staff and cops needed to be deployed to carry out the exercise. This is where the ECP and the provincial government were found lacking as the polling staff was inadequate considering the scale and complexity of the voting procedures and the police force had to be thinly spread in view of manpower shortages.

Except the district and tehsil council seats that were contested on party basis, all the candidates for reserved general, peasants and workers, youth, women and minorities’ seats had to be independents with their own election symbols. Every voter in urban areas got seven ballots while the number was six in rural constituencies where there weren’t any minority communities. This resulted in slow processing of voters and long queues of people frustrated by the delays. As pointed out by FAFEN, the polling scheme wasn’t finalised to accommodate the increase in the number of voters and the complex ballot processing requirements envisaged by the KP Local Government Act.

FAFEN also reported 81 incidents of violence in 19 districts, blamed political parties and candidates for breaching election rules, and highlighted improved participation of women in the electoral process in KP despite the continued existence of hurdles in letting them exercise their right to vote. Terming the existing legal and administrative frameworks enacted by the provincial governments for conducting local government elections as inadequate, FAFEN proposed a federal framework legislation to define the role of the ECP to conduct consistent, free, fair and transparent polls.

However, the issue at hand is overcoming the controversy triggered by the local government elections in KP. Holding re-elections is unrealistic as all the participating parties and candidates, particularly those who emerged victorious, are unlikely to agree to it. A better course would be to hold fresh polling in constituencies in which the most complaints about rigging were lodged and where violence kept voters, including females, from voting and affected the turnout. There is a need to make these polls as credible as possible so that the elected local governments have the moral strength to exercise their powers to serve the people.