KARACHI, Aug 20: As the stakeholders in politics brace for the second phase of the local body elections on Aug 25, the legality and outcome of these polls are being questioned by major opposition parties who had levelled allegations of pre-poll, poll-day and post-poll rigging.

The manner in which these allegations were made persistently, has heightened concern about people’s dwindling faith in the ballot, they said pointing to the firing incident on some leaders of the opposition parties in the interior of Sindh while they were addressing corner meetings.

Failure of the Election Commission to get its code of conduct implemented, even by the coalition parties, also raised serious questions about its credibility.

Despite the government’s claim of about 50 per cent turnout in the first phase, independent sources do not put it more than 35 per cent.

Low turnout was regarded as a negative signal by political circles who said that if people did not turn up to elect people for addressing their local and neighbourhood issues, this amounted to erosion of their faith in the ballot and the political system. Instead of bread and butter issue, terrorism and extremism was injected in the campaign by the political parties and the common man’s issues were eclipsed by the issues linked with international agenda.

They said that “dynamics of change cannot be altered but if this trend of fraud on the electorate continued, people will go for ‘bullet’ instead of ‘ballot’.”

The general consensus was that the election was aimed at weakening the political cadre and parties at the grassroots level and strengthening the biradri and sectarian system.

One significant aspect of the first round was that realities on the ground in terms of development had a little impact on the voting pattern. Instead, political affiliation dominated and proved the non-party character of these polls a farce.

One good thing of this charged atmosphere, as far as Karachi was concerned, was that the feared bloodbath did not take place. Maybe the government itself boosted that hype to compel the people to remain indoors.

No one, especially the ruling coalition’s proxies, respected the code of conduct prescribed by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The CEC did not take serious notice of such complaints while police acted as silent spectators.