The allegations and counter-allegations about the May 30 local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have confused the people and even the ruling and opposition political parties are uncertain about the future of local bodies.

The protests, rallies and news conferences by the losing candidates against the alleged election rigging have become a routine.

Though district returning officers and returning officers have decided to hold re-elections in 26 polling stations in Peshawar, written complaints continue to flood the offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan, which is to decide the fate of the claims to victory.

The official election results have yet to be announced but for the losing candidates, there is no other option but to raise voice for the holding of re-elections in their respective wards. Almost all candidates have possessed piles of ballot papers, official stamps and voters lists with women’s photos and produced them before the media.

This is really surprising for all and sundry that how the election material like ballot papers, official voter lists and rubber stamps reached so many candidates as such items were supposed to be in the custody of election staff.

It was observed that stamps were of different designs and sizes with losing candidates claiming to have found them abandoned at polling stations.

In the post-election scenario, there is no other topic for the people to talk and everywhere the people are seen busy discussing the alleged massive election rigging, firing, insufficient security measures, insufficient and untrained election staff, vandalism of the influential candidates.

It is worth mentioning here that besides independent candidates, political parties and lawmakers of various parties including the ruling coalition also complain about election rigging and blame each other for it.

The ruling coalition’s partners in the province have also loudly started blaming each other’s candidates for violating election rules and rigging polls. In some demonstrations, even the elected people also joined hands with the losers and raised voice for re-elections.

Many of the people blamed police and election staff members for extending undue support to certain candidates and helped them stamp their election symbols in closed door rooms. Majority of the complaints pertain to women polling stations who are of the view that they were either not given voters slip or not allowed to stamp their chosen election symbols and thus keeping them deprived of their democratic right to vote.

Apparently, the opposition parties blame PTI for the entire disorder but PTI candidates in various district like Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi, Lakki Marwat, Hangu, Karak, Bannu and even Dir have their own complaints against the rest of parties, especially ANP, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl, Pakistan People’s party and JI also for violating elections rules.

Now, every party has separate opinion but some of them have expressed views wherein ANP has asked for dissolution of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and holding fresh elections under a neutral interim set up.

Similarly, JUI-F has also asked Imran Khan to admit his failure and quit the provincial government.

The leaders of various political parties have their own point of view and they blame both the provincial government and election commission of Pakistan for the criminal negligence to ensure fair, impartial and transparent elections. There are three political parties in the provincial coalition government including Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Jamaat-i-Islami and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan but the opposition’s main target is PTI.

To clarify the position of the provincial government, a shocking revelation was made by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan threw the entire responsibility on the election commission of Pakistan . He said the Election Commission of Pakistan had not entertained the recommendations of provincial government regarding biometric system, phase- wise arrangements, saying that it was not his government’s responsibility to appoint and train the election staff but EC had to fulfil all the formalities. He said the election material, ballot papers were got printed in private printing presses and the EC even did not bother to ensure printing of all the symbols, names of candidates and transportation of sufficient material to every polling station.

The provincial government, he said had written to the ECP in October last year (2014) to conduct the local government elections phase-wise on pilot basis at the village level under biometric system but it had rejected the demand and adopted its own policies.

The minister, who belongs to Jamaat-i-Islami, advised the political parties to avoid criticism and give credit to the local government for arranging for the first time such a huge elections in the province after a gap of 10 years. “It is not an easy job to make arrangements for such a huge election otherwise the previous governments will have done the job,” he said.

The election commission, the minister said even did not bother to consult heads of various departments for acquiring election staff and deputed the employees on basis of old lists wherein deceased and medically unfit people were also included to the utter surprise of the people. He said how an ordinary employee could perform such a responsible duty without proper training. He asked the opposition parties to stop the criticism because they were equally responsible for the mess in different districts.

Similarly, PPP provincial leadership has also demanded re-election but not under supervision of the incumbent government.

“Our decisions will now be on roads and we will start sit-ins against the provincial government,” said former provincial president of PPP women wing Asma Alamgir.

ANP Peshawar district vice president Amanullah Khan said his party had asked for dissolution of the provincial assembly and it would stick to its stand as PTI had badly failed to come up to the people’s expectations.

He said the slogan of change was witnessed by all people in the recent LG elections. The opinion of Qaumi Watan Party is a little bit different from the rest of the parties.

QWP provincial chairman and MPA Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao said dissolution of the provincial assembly was not a solution of the issue but it was duty of the government to develop a consensus in this regard. “In my view, an all-party conference can better decide about fate of local bodies,” he suggested.

At the same time, he also demanded formation of a judicial commission to fix responsibility of the criminal negligence, rigging and mismanagement so that the people found guilty of the disorder could be awarded punishment to teach them a lesson.

While referring to the offer of PTI chairman Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for fresh local body elections in the province, he disagreed with the proposal and said fair elections could not be expected under the supervision of the current government.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Peshawar district President Abdul Sattar Khalil also expressed reservations about the recent electoral exercise and held PTI and its coalition partners for disturbance and rigging.

It is perhaps an unending process of allegations and counter-allegations. The people at large declare local body elections the worst in the history of the province but it is still not confirmed who is at fault for the electoral mess. The political parties have yet to develop a consensus on how to redress grievances of losing candidates.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2015

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