ISLAMABAD, January 19, 2023: Voters in Karachi and Hyderabad Divisions turned out variedly to elect more than 3,508 councilors in long-delayed local government elections on January 15, 2023, that remained peaceful and relatively orderly, but were tainted by allegations of rigging by major political parties over delay in the announcement of results by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The second phase of local government elections in Sindh was originally scheduled for July 24, 2022, but was delayed thrice due to floods, and later due to the unavailability of security officials to perform election duty. However, the Election Commission did not accede to the Sindh government’s request to further delay the election on the pretext of change in the number of union councils in Karachi and Hyderabad Divisions that required fresh delimitation. The Commission’s refusal led to the polls’ boycott by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQMP), which expressed dissatisfaction over the quality of electoral rolls and delimitation. MQMP’s boycott also appeared to have resulted in a decline in voter turnout in Karachi and urban Hyderabad.

Controversies over the quality of electoral processes do not augur well, particularly when the political parties are preparing for General Elections that are constitutionally due by October 11, 2023. Many of these controversies stem from weaknesses in the legislative framework that governs elections, which need to be rectified through wide-ranging negotiations among all political actors coming together for electoral reforms irrespective of their political differences. Unless elections lead to political stability, the process of democratization will continue to weaken and so will the public trust in democracy and its ability to improve the social and economic well-being of the people. The Election Commission, at the same time, need to open up to political actors and address their legitimate concerns through the regulatory space available to it under the Elections Act, 2017, to ensure truly “inclusive” elections, minimizing the eventualities of poll boycotts by major political parties in future.

Despite controversies and uncertainty over the conduct of elections, an impressive number of people turned to vote in local government elections in Badin, Jamshoro, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar, Thatta, and Malir Districts. However, the voter turnout remained relatively lower in Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi West, Karachi South, Korangi, Hyderabad, and Kemari Districts. According to Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), the turnout in the Hyderabad Division remained more than 40 percent, while in Karachi it was less than 20 percent with the exception of Malir. The turnout in Karachi and Hyderabad Divisions remained at 36 and 58 percent, respectively, in the last local government elections held in 2015.

The voting process remained orderly, unlike the previous phase when instances of overcrowding at polling stations led to untoward situations. The legal and procedural irregularities and inadequacies concerning campaigning and canvassing inside and around the polling stations and the ballot issuance process observed during the first phase persisted during the second phase as well. The election day environment was largely peaceful as FAFEN received only 14 reports of verbal altercations on January 15, 2023, as compared to 55 incidents of violence including some physical and armed clashes during the first phase.

Although the provisional results of the Karachi Division were publicly available within two days amidst allegations of manipulation and rigging, the consolidated results of the districts in the Hyderabad Division are still awaited. The ECP had reserved four days from the polling day for consolidation of the election results in its original notification for the second phase dated June 10, 2022. FAFEN observers noted omissions and inadequacies in the polling station result forms [Form-XI (Statement of the Count)] recurring during the second phase. They reported cases where presiding officers did not duly fill out the result forms leaving empty sections made for recording polling stations’ names, registered voters, gender-disaggregated number of votes polled, and signatures of polling officials.

FAFEN recommends ensuring stricter enforcement of the code of conduct regarding campaigning and canvassing on election day, setting up adequately spaced polling booths, compliance with the voter identification and ballot issuance processes, availability of female staff at female polling booths, and provision of basic facilities at the polling stations before the General Elections to improve the polling day management.

The 16 districts of Karachi and Hyderabad divisions where local government polls were held during the second phase included Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Jamshoro, Dadu, Badin, Sujawal, Thatta, Malir, Korangi Karachi, Karachi East, Karachi South, Karachi West, Karachi Central, and Kemari. A total of 4,412 seats for general members and/or Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of municipal committees, town committees, district councils, union committees, and union councils were to be filled, of which 862 were decided uncontested, while elections for 52 seats were postponed due to death of contesting candidates. In addition, no nomination papers were filed for 23 seats. As many as 18,108 candidates contested for the remaining 3,508 seats.

The ECP had set up a total of 8,706 polling stations – 1,204 male, 1,170 female, and 6,332 combined – comprising 30,399 polling booths – 15,649 male and 14,750 female – to facilitate 13,283,696 registered voters including 7,314,890 men and 5,968,806 women. Of 8,706 polling stations, 2,491 (29 percent) were declared highly sensitive and 6,215 (71 percent) sensitive.

FAFEN’s analysis is based on the observation reports received from trained and duly accredited citizen observers deployed at 343 (four percent of the total) statistically sampled polling stations including 225 combined, 61 male and 57 female polling stations. FAFEN deployed 104 observers, including 66 men and 38 women who observed the opening process at 90 polling stations, the availability of election staff and materials at the voting process at 953 polling booths, voter identification and ballot issuance processes for 1,121 voters, and counting process at 74 polling stations.

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The post Sindh Local Government Elections 2023 Phase II: Results Management Issues Overshadow Peaceful and Well-Managed Polling Day appeared first on Election Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, July 8, 2022: Around 40 percent of the registered voters turned out to vote in the first phase of the local government (LG) elections to elect 5,331 general members of Union Councils, Union Committees, Municipal Committees, Town Committees and District Councils, and Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of Union Councils and Union Committees in 14 districts of Sindh on June 26, 2022, resuming the process of strengthening the grassroots democracy. However, the results of the otherwise orderly and well-managed voting and counting processes are yet to be notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), indicating lapses in this crucial aspect of electoral integrity.

Considering the scale and complexity of the exercise, the polling day remained largely orderly and well-managed. However, scattered incidents of localized violence, legal and procedural irregularities and overcrowding at polling stations followed by allegations of rigging and manipulation of election results by contending parties need urgent attention of the ECP for improved legal and regulatory enforcement for the next phase of LG elections in Sindh as well as the overdue LG elections in Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Some of the key areas that need further reinforcement included check on the campaigning and canvassing on election day to minimize the possibility of violence, proper setting up of polling stations to avoid overcrowding, adherence to legal process by polling staff for voter identification to avoid both disenfranchisement and ensure only registered voters are allowed to vote, complete compliance with legal requirements for issuance of ballot papers, availability of female staff at female polling booths, greater investment in the training of polling staff, and provision of basic facilities at the polling stations.

The polling was held despite efforts and calls by all major parties including Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQMP), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for further delay in the long-overdue LG elections on various pretexts including need for further empowerment of local governments, updating electoral rolls and issues of delimitation. The uncertainty over the conduct of the polls prevailed until the last day. However, Election Commission’s resolve to hold the polls according to the schedule announced in April this year remained undeterred.

According to the ECP’s schedule, the election results were to be consolidated within four days of the polling i.e. by June 30, 2022, but the official results are still awaited. However, the available Form-XI (the Statement of the Count) of the polling stations suggest that 42 percent of the registered voters including 45 percent of the registered male voters and 40 percent of the registered female voters exercised their right to vote.

The 14 districts where first-phase LG polls were held included Jacobabad, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Larkana, Kamber Shahdadkot, Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Tharparkar. A total of 6,277 seats for general members of 101 Town Committees, 23 Municipal Committees, 14 District Councils as well as general members and Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of 93 Union Committees and 794 Union Councils were to be filled, of which 946 were decided uncontested while 21,298 candidates contested for the remaining 5,331 seats.

The ECP had set up a total of 9,023 polling stations – 1,910 male, 1,895 female, and 5,218 combined – comprising 28,742 polling booths – 15,116 male and 13,626 female – to facilitate 11,304,860 registered voters including 6,147,442 men and 5,157,418 women. Of 9,023 polling stations, 2,145 (23 percent) were declared highly sensitive, 3,482 (39 percent) sensitive and 3,396 (38 percent) normal.

The report is based on the observation findings from 831 polling stations, which included observation of opening process at 199 polling stations and counting process at 180. Moreover, a general observation covering the availability of election staff and material at the booths was carried out at 1,959 polling booths, while a detailed observation covering voter identification, verification, and ballot issuance processes was conducted for 2,475 voters, who presented themselves to vote at 692 polling booths. FAFEN deployed 333 trained citizen observers – 224 women and 109 men – who were duly accredited by the ECP.

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QUETTA, June 03, 2022: Balochistan completed the first phase of the local government (LG) polls to elect over 6,000 general councilors in an election that remained controversy-free followed by prompt acceptance of the results by all major political parties. Such an acceptance augurs well for democracy and development in the province where the integrity of electoral exercises has previously been questioned.

Despite sporadic illegalities and irregularities, the elections remained largely peaceful, orderly and better-managed. Campaigning and canvassing around polling stations, non-provision of copies of result forms to polling agents, inconsistent compliance with the legal provision to permit voters present inside the polling station after 5:00 pm to cast their vote and issues of secrecy of voters remained some of major areas that need to be stringently enforced. FAFEN observers reported large number of voters turning out to vote on election-day. Although majority of polling stations (65 percent) were categorized as sensitive or most-sensitive security-wise, the election-day remained largely peaceful with scattered incidents of local violence reported in 23 districts.

Election Day followed a highly competitive campaign with political parties and independent candidates freely canvassing in a largely peaceful environment. As many as 17,774 candidates – 17,642 male and 132 female – were in the run for general seats fielded by 17 political parties in 6,259 wards (5,345 rural and 914 urban wards) in municipal corporations, municipal committees and union councils. The ECP had set up a total of 6,237 polling stations – 671 male, 652 female and 4,914 combined. These polling stations had a total of 13,533 polling booths including 6,867 for men and 6,307 for women to facilitate 3,614,724 voters – 2,043,828 male and 1,570,896 female voters.

Following the May 29 elections of representatives on general seats, ECP is now due to hold indirect elections for the seats reserved for women, peasants or workers, and religious minorities, and the elections for Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the local councils. Moreover, the ECP has yet to announce schedule for general seats elections in two major districts with sizeable urban population in the province i.e. Quetta and Lasbela, which were earlier withheld because of issues with the delimitation of wards.

After the expiry of LGs in Balochistan on January 27, 2019, it took over three years for ECP to conduct LG elections as these continued to face delay on one pretext or the other by the provincial government. Lack of consensus among political parties over amendments to the Balochistan LG Act (BLGA), 2010 and delimitation of constituencies remained the primary hurdles before the conduct of election. The Balochistan Assembly in February 2019 and April 2022 recommended to the Election Commission through resolutions postponement of the LG polls due to impending amendments to the BLGA and subsequent delimitations. The provincial government had also petitioned the Election Commission to withhold the elections to allow introduction of necessary amendments to the BLGA, 2010. However, a three-member bench of the ECP rejected the petition on April 14, 2022 and announced the date for election-day.

Scattered incidents of localized violence in 23 districts partially disrupted the polling processes on election-day. FAFEN observers reported 63 incidents of violence inside or around 53 polling stations. A majority of these were verbal brawls and scuffles between workers of contesting candidates and political parties, while a few incidents of armed and unarmed physical clashes were also reported. As many as six persons including a child were reportedly injured due to these armed and unarmed physical clashes. In addition to FAFEN observation, local media also reported various incidents of armed and unarmed clashes resulting in at least one death and multiple injuries.

Though the Election Commission has taken extraordinary measures over the last few years to improve inclusivity of elections particularly by focusing on women, persons with disabilities and transgender people, women participation as candidates has remained a cause of serious concern. As witnessed during Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) LG elections, only 132 women (less than one percent) contested in various wards in urban and rural councils of Balochistan. No woman contested elections on any general seat in 10 districts – Killa Abdullah, Chaman, Nushki, Chagai, Zhob, Sherani, Killa Saifullah, Harnai, Ziarat and Surab. Such low contestation by women reinforces the need for political parties to reform their local structures and organization to encourage more women and other members of marginalized segments of population to emerge as leaders.

This preliminary report is based on the observation of over 12 percent of 6,237 polling stations on which elections were held for the first phase of LG elections. This includes reports from 128 male polling stations, 93 female polling stations and 527 combined polling stations. FAFEN deployed 266 nonpartisan Election Day observers – 70 women and 196 men – to observe the voting and counting processes at around 15 percent of the total polling stations across 32 districts. Each observer was required to observe up to four polling stations for in-depth observation of the quality of the electoral processes. FAFEN’s observation methodology is based on the BLGA, 2010 (as amended up to April 2019), the Elections Act, 2017, the Elections Rules, 2017, and the Codes of Conduct notified under the laws. For the training of FAFEN’s election-day observers, as many as 25 training workshops were held across the province covering technical aspects of voting and counting processes.

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ISLAMABAD, April 5, 2022: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) successfully completed the second phase of the local government (LG) elections with around 41 percent of the 8.5 million registered voters in 18 districts turning out to vote on March 31, 2022 to elect 12,875 representatives on general and reserved seats in an election that was largely peaceful, orderly and transparent. Although the ballots excluded from the count were more than the margin of victory in 28 tehsil contests for the seats of chairmen, the election outcome was accepted by all contending political parties.

Against the backdrop of political uncertainty amid the impending no-confidence motion (NCM) against the Prime Minister and resulting political fragmentation, the election process remained largely peaceful with a reasonable voter turnout. The election remained highly competitive as political unity among opposition parties at the center did not translate into electoral alliances or seat adjustments at the local level. As many as 34,734 candidates including the ones fielded by 25 political parties were in the run for general and reserved seats at the tehsil, neighborhood and village council level.

In what was an undeniably a complex, complicated and largescale electoral exercise with more than over 72,000 deployed election officials to manage 6,170 polling stations (3,951 combined, 1,151 male and 1,068 female) comprising 16,509 polling booths (9,218 for men and 7,291 for women), KP has become the first province to have fulfilled its constitutional responsibility under Article 140-A(1) to form the third-tier of governance providing representation to local representatives including the marginalized communities such as peasants, workers and women. However, the election followed a delay of more than two years primarily due to weak political will to decentralize powers that manifested in the shape of legal complications and inadequacies. The provincial government legalized the delay through an amendment in the KP Epidemic Control and Emergency Relief Act, 2020 on the pretext of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The ECP had initially scheduled the second phase of KPLG to take place on March 27, 2022, but the date was changed to March 31, 2022 following the Supreme Court’s reversal of an earlier order by the Peshawar High Court that required the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold these elections after Ramadan. The KPLG elections during the second phase were held to elect mayors of two city councils, chairmen of 63 tehsil councils, and members of 1,659 village councils and 171 neighborhood councils across 18 districts including Abbottabad, Swat, Malakand, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Shangla, Tor Garh, Lower Kohistan, Upper Kohistan, Kolai-Palas, Mansehra, Battagram, Kurram, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. The elections were postponed in a neighborhood council (NC) Sainabad (Mansehra) due to wrong allotment of the election symbol, and two village councils – VC Wahab Khel (Shangla) and VC Mekahband (Malakand) – due to the deaths of the contesting candidates. Moreover, the voting at 18 polling stations in eight districts (South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Kolai Palas, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Kurram, Upper Kohistan and Battagram) was halted and subsequently postponed due to incidents of violence.

The number of ballots excluded from the count at the polling station level was disconcerting, and remained almost seven percent (177,375) of the total votes polled (2,642,982). Of the 54 provisional results announced so far, there were 28 tehsils where the margin of victory was less the total number of ballots excluded from the count of the contests of seats of chairmen. For instance, in Kalkot tehsil of Upper Dir, the margin of victory between the winning and runner-up candidates from the chairmen seat was of seven votes, whereas the total ballots excluded from the count were 1,633. The Election Commission may ascertain the reasons for exclusion of ballots as per Section 8(b) of the Elections Act, 2017 to inform its voter information and education campaigns for future elections.

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ISLAMABAD, December 21, 2021: Pakistan inched towards the installation of the constitutionally-promised local governments (LGs) when around 40 percent of registered voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) turned out to vote on December 19, 2021 in 17 districts to elect more than 14,000 representatives on general and reserved seats, and four city mayors and 60 tehsil chairmen in an election that remained largely orderly, lawful and transparent but fell short on complete compliance with procedural formalities, and registered a considerable percentage of votes that were excluded from the count at the polling stations.

In what was undoubtedly one of the largest and most complex electoral exercises in the country, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been able to manage the pre-election and election day processes by law and procedures, despite last minute court orders that had declared the legal scheme of LG elections – that were to be originally contested on a non-party basis – ultra vires to the Constitution. Despite fears of an inordinate delay, the Election Commission ensured the electoral exercise to be conducted by the original schedule, setting the ball rolling for the establishment of the third-tier of the government, which had been on hold for more than two years in all federal entities due to legal hitches curtaining the absence of political will to decentralize and devolve powers to the grassroots.

The KPLG elections during the first phase were held in Peshawar, Buner, Bajaur, Swabi, Nowshera, Kohat, Karak, Charsadda, Dera Ismail (D.I) Khan, Tank, Haripur, Mardan, Bannu, Khyber, Mohmand, Hangu and Lakki Marwat. During this phase, the LG elections were held for four city mayors of Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan and Bannu. The election for the city mayor of D.I. Khan was postponed due to the assassination of the Awami National Party (ANP) candidate. Moreover, the LG polls were held for 60 tehsil chairmen, and more than 2,200 village and neighborhood councils. The ECP had set up a total of 9,132 polling stations including 3,340 male, 2,978 female and 2,814 combined. These polling stations had a total of 28,883 polling booths including 16,327 for men and 12,556 for women to facilitate 12,668,862 registered voters – 7,015,767 men and 5,653,095 women.

A lower turnout than the General Elections (GE) 2018 was recorded during these elections. The turnout remained around 40 percent during the KPLG elections as compared to 45.8 percent in GE-2018. However, the turnout in the current LG elections is almost equivalent to 2015 LG elections, when it remained 40.50 percent for the province. According to the unofficial results of 46 tehsils released by the ECP, the turnout remained 40 percent – highest being 60 percent in Paroa in D.I. Khan and the lowest 22 percent in Tall in Hangu. These turnout figures have been prepared on the basis of Form XIX (Provisional Consolidated Statement of Results of the Count) for the seats of tehsil chairmen and city mayors.

Expectation of a high turnout may have not been met due to multiple factors but not excluding a general distrust in the efficacy of LGs, which have largely remained under-powered to deliver upon the expectations of people during their last tenure 2015-2019. However, the gender disaggregated turnout is not available as the 26 Forms XIX do not contain this data. According to available gender-disaggregated data for 20 tehsils, female turnout remained 16.69 percent as compared to 26.96 percent male turnout. At none of these tehsils, for which gender-disaggregated data is available, the turnout of women remained less than 10 percent of the total polled votes.

More concerning, however, is the number of votes excluded from the count, which stands at seven percent, according to these provisional results. As many as 25 of these provisional results have a Margin of Victory which is less than the number of ballots excluded from the count, though the decision for the final rejection of these excluded ballots will be made after their review by the Returning Officers (ROs) during the proceeding for results consolidation to be completed on December 24, 2021. Of these, eight tehsils are won by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), six by Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Pakistan (JUIP), five by Awami National Party (ANP), two by Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PMLN), one each by Pakistan Peoples’ Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) and Tehreek-e-Islahaat Party (TIP), and two by Independents.

The positive aspect of these elections is the prompt acceptance of their results by all major political parties in the province particularly the senior leaders of incumbent PTI, which lost ground to rival opposition parties in many of its strongholds. This will augur well for democracy and may just be the first in Pakistan’s political history where election results have generally been challenged and electoral defeats not generously accepted. Other major political parties have also accepted the voting and counting processes as largely legitimate, and have yet to contest their quality, notwithstanding some isolated complaints, and scattered and localized incidents of violence that disrupted the polling on election day and in some cases compelling the Election Commission to order either cancellation of election or re-polling. The elections for tehsil and village (VC)/neighborhood councils (NC) in Baka Khel Wazir, Bannu will be rescheduled. Similarly, the elections were postponed in seven VCs and NCs in four districts – VC Kot Esa Khan and VC Rata Kulachi-1 in D.I. Khan, NC Baghe Irum and NC Kot Ismail Zai in Mardan, VC Azam Michankhel in Lakki Marwat, and VC Nawa in Bajaur due to deaths of contesting candidates. Moreover, the voting at six polling stations in Peshawar was halted and subsequently postponed due to incidents of violence on the election day. However, an exhaustive list of polling stations where the Election Commission would order re-polling is still awaited.

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