ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: The fairness of February 18 general elections was compromised by consistent problems at the polling station level with the number of polled votes exceeding the total number of registered voters in one or more polling stations in 55 out of 243 constituencies.

According to data released by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), Punjab topped the number of ‘captured polling stations’ with polling stations in 36 constituencies showing over 100 per cent voters’ turnout.

These constituencies were NA-58, NA-60, NA-68, NA-70, NA-76, NA-77, NA-80, NA-84, NA-86, NA-92, NA-93, NA-94, NA-97, NA-98, NA-103, NA-107, NA-118, NA-120, NA-126, NA-128, NA-131, NA-132, NA-136, NA-147, NA-153, NA_161, NA-162, NA-163, NA-170, NA-171, NA-172, NA-175, NA-177, NA-188, NA-195 and NA-196.

The same was the case with seven constituencies in NWFP and Fata - NA-2, NA-6, NA-12, NA-17, NA-23, NA-24, NA-25 - both the constituencies of the federal capital (NA-48 and 49), six in Sindh - NA-203, NA-212, NA-216, NA-219, NA-224, NA-236 - and NA-262, NA-263, NA-269 and NA-270 in Balochistan.

In about one-third of all constituencies around the country, there were polling stations with abnormally high voter turnout compared to the rest of the constituency.

In about half of these cases, most or all of the ballots cast were for a single candidate. This phenomenon may indicate that ballot boxes were “stuffed” for one candidate. Indeed, FAFEN election observers witnessed polling station officials or other unauthorised people stamping extra ballots in one or more polling stations.

Describing polling stations with greater than 100 per cent voter turnout as “captured”, the report said polling officials at these stations could be under the influence of a candidate, political party or other influential forces. Voters in these polling stations could be under economic duress or other illegal intimidation to vote for a single candidate. Such patterns in voting are contrary to the principles of a “free” election.

Notably, many with abnormally high turnout in NWFP and Balochistan were female polling stations, which might have been vulnerable to electoral fraud, especially in areas with traditionally low female voter turnout, since very few voters or others would be present in the stations to witness the fraud.

In four constituencies of NWFP, the polling places with abnormally high turnout were women’s polling stations (NA-2, NA-16, NA-20, and NA-30). The same holds true for five Balochistan constituencies (NA-259, NA-260, NA-261, NA-262, and NA-270). In NA-262, four female polling stations reported over 160 per cent of registered voters cast ballots including one station with an astronomical 746 per cent turnout.

In at least five constituencies, women were reportedly barred from voting in some polling stations. These were NA-16, NA-22, NA-29, and NA-33 as well as NA-209 in Sindh.

FAFEN said most of these problems would be deterred if the electoral reforms committee, which is currently considering changes to the election law, made it mandatory that each polling station result is published promptly after the elections.

Many of the polling station problems documented by FAFEN observers took place in closely contested constituencies, where polling station irregularities could have made a difference in the outcome of the election.

FAFEN’s parallel vote tabulation (PVT) in almost all of these constituencies shows the same election result as that of the ECP.

This corroboration indicates the strength of the methodology despite the difficulty in accessing some of the randomly selected polling stations. FAFEN’s data indicate that there are seven constituencies in this group of 48 for which the PVT result differs from the ECP result.

Again, these data are not conclusive. The seven constituencies showing a difference between the PVT and ECP results are NA-20, NA-25, and NA-29 in NWFP; NA-171 and NA-180 in Punjab, and NA-262 and NA-263 in Balochistan.

The difference in vote count between the winning candidate and the runner-up was also relatively close in an additional seven constituencies of NA-36 in NWFP; NA-73, NA-107, NA-176, NA-196 in Punjab, and NA-270 and NA-271 in Balochistan.