The political void
DUE to their persistent opposition to the third tier of the government and, thereby, their in ability to develop liaison with the electorate at the grassroots level, the political parties are facing trouble as the local government elections are increasingly becoming a norm due to the insistence of the Supreme Court and pressure of civil society.
The first phase of the recently-held local polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have revealed that the independent candidates crushed the political parties and in many districts the so-called champions democracy could find candidates to prove their popularity among the masses.
The reality came to light recently when Pattan Development Organization (PDO) released a report based on the documents with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), containing information about the votes polled to the candidates in a constituency.
The PDO had not monitored the election, but, rather, analyzed Form 21, containing results of constituencies and duly signed by the Returning Officers (ROs), posted on the Election Commission’s website.
Where the parties fielded their candidates and where not, what happened to the seats of labourers, farmers and women?
How many votes were cast and how many were rejected?The cumulative data is made available through these forms.(Form 21)
The scrutiny of 10,000 such forms by PDO has brought forth stunning details: the turnout was dismally low, many seats reserved for labourers and women were left vacant and, worrisomely, voters preferred independent candidates ((61% -68%) more than the all political parties combined— even the ruling party could not pitch candidates for seven districts.
Contrary to the wide-spread impression about the religio-political parties, they have taken care of gender equality while fielding candidates than the so-called liberal/secular parties.
The bottom line is that political parties have no roots in the people and, consequently, there exists a political void that needs to be filled.
The ‘poverty of political parties’, in the words of Sarwar Bari, who is the head of the PDO and two-time Secretary General of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) rests in the fact that they are not technically designed and modelled to represent the people at grassroots level but to guard and promote the interest of the few controlling the country’s land and financial resources.
Naturally, the political parties are neither concerned with the powerlessness of the people nor with the local governments.
After the restoration of the Constitution, they rendered the elected local governments dysfunctional.
Even though elections were held years later on the orders of the Supreme Court, only a paralyzed system was delivered.
Basing on its findings, the PDO has suggested that the political parties must organize themselves locally and establish democratic structures at the grassroots level.
This means that if they want to survive in politics, they need to take the constitutionally mandated third-tier of government seriously.
It would be better if political parties develop stakes in grassroots democracy rather than opposing it all together.
In other words, the credibility of the political parties will remain questionable, if they don’t strike roots in the masses.
The political void certainly needs to be filled and herein rests the role of civil society.
The PDO has suggested that the labour unions and the rights organizations, especially working for the uplift of womenfolk, need to collaborate to secure representation of the marginalized sections of the society in the local bodies.
This suggestion has been made in the backdrop of the statistics whereby the seats reserved for labourers, farmers and women remained vacant.
So, there has emerged a possibility of a party emerging on the political horizon.The PDO report has paid due attention to the performance of the ECP as well.
The statistics, graphs and diagrams indicate that the people who compiled the results were either not properly trained or they were in a state of compulsion to make serious mistakes.
If the number of votes secured by the losers was not entered in the relevant box of the form, the number of rejected votes was counted more than the number of votes cast, and ‘Gul Khan’ was declared winner on a seat reserved for women, then the transparency of the election certainly stands compromised.
Ironically, the names and designations of ROs signing the Form 21 are missing.Sarwar Bari recommended that the Election Commission should admit its mistake and explain why and how the same will not be repeated in future.
Too, those who have committed wrongs and grossly neglected their professional responsibility should be punished and blacklisted.
Needless to say, it means capacity building and appointing qualified Returning Officers.
The PDO report on the first phase of KP local elections has highlighted quite serious mistakes that make this democratic exercise far from fair.
Elections were delayed and discrepancies in results are now an open secret.
Being a functional democracy, the country can’t afford inefficiency and negligence on the part of the Election Commission.
Equally, the discrepancies in the compiling of election results may provide enough food for thought to the political parties that have seen no worth in devolving power to the grassroots level.
Punjab has girded up the loin to have constitutionally mandated local governments very late and Sindh is not interested in devolving power to the grassroots level as per the spirit of the Constitution (Article 140-A) altogether.
The blessing in disguise, however, is that the ruling party has performed as poorly as the other contestant parties.
Otherwise, the poor conduct of the Election Commission could have serious consequences for the conduct of the second phase of the local polls in KP.
If Pakistan has to tread the democratic path, the third tier of government constitutes a balancing act to keep in check the demons elite democracy has unleashed so far.
For that matter, the Election Commission needs to assert its independence and overcome its shortcomings.
The dynastic parties need to be denied any opportunity to stand in the way of grassroots democracy, so vital for equitable distribution of funds and resources across the country.
In a country where votes are grabbed in the name of religion, language and ethnicity, other than vote-buying and horse trading, the PDO’s suggestion for the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) seems timely and practicable.
Maybe it will raise the cost of conducting elections but more important is the credibility of the Election Commission to deliver and the future of democracy in Pakistan.
—The writer is politico-strategic analyst based in Islamabad.
