ISLAMABAD: A large majority of the people from the northern snow-clad districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province wanted general elections on the scheduled date, though most (83 per cent) of the respondents of an opinion poll survey had doubts over elections being held on Feb 8.

These are some of major findings of an opinion poll that PATTAN-Coalition-38 conducted during December 8 to 13.

Preliminary analysis of the opinion poll also reveals that as many as 88pc of the respondents wanted polling to be held on the scheduled date, announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Nearly two-thirds of the survey respondents believe that the ECP has not been performing its duty fairly and honestly, while 62pc said the level playing field was not available to all political parties.

More than 70pc of the respondents expressed doubts about the conduct of caretaker governments. The respondents also believed that the caretaker governments were not acting neutrally, justly, and honestly. When the same question was asked about the conduct of judiciary, only 38pc said the judiciary was acting fairly and justly, while 34pc of them said “no, or not-at-all”.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023