CONTESTING election in a rural constituency is a different ballgame altogether when it comes to spending money. The ECP ceiling of Rs1.5 million for a NA candidate is being openly scoffed at by contestants across the political spectrum, and they have their reasons.
From the moment, one applies for a party ticket — on an average Rs40-50,000 — it is all about money and a whole lot of it till the D-Day sunset and a little beyond to cover for the vote-counting process.
“We printed around 50,000 posters and stickers of a NA candidate from lower Sindh for Rs750,000,” said a printing press owner in Khokhar Mohallah, a locality of Hyderabad which is the hub of printing business attracting clients from across the province. This single head, as one can see, has wiped off half the amount a candidate is allowed to spend. Naturally, the bill is taken care of by some well-wisher. Visibility is a key factor in a rural scenario and flags, buntings, posters, handbills, stickers, billboards, panaflex, advertisements in regional press and television channels as well as election offices with rented sound systems are some of the essentials in rural constituencies which are thinly spread out in terms of the electorate.
Many a candidate Dawn spoke to said the ECP ceiling was “nothing but a joke”. People just don’t care to vote until and unless they are properly taken care of. For instance, they need to be provided transport to and from the polling stations, they argued.
Transport, without debate, is the biggest head both during the campaign and even more so on the polling day. Most of the candidates obviously turn to private transport providers much in advance.
One candidate volunteered to do the maths of transport phenomenon. “I need 300 vehicles — two each for one polling station and there are 150 polling stations in my constituency — to facilitate the voters. I have to pay roughly Rs10,000 per vehicle per day. This entails an expenditure of Rs3 million and this is just for the poling day. Besides, I need to travel across the constituency several times a day and have to travel with not just the security escort but also with a sizeable crowd to show my muscle to the electorate. All those vehicles naturally need fuel to keep going,” he continued.
The small vehicles cost Rs2-3,000 each per day and a vehicle needs fuel worth Rs2-4,000 for every day of the campaign. For a 20-day campaign, this totals up to roughly a million. “You see, just the transport costs a candidate Rs4 million,” he said rather sarcastically. How will he survive with the ECP ceiling of a total expenditure of Rs1.5 million? Well-wishers, of course!
The new trend of professional event management is also catching up, especially when some big name opts to grace a rural constituency. When Shah Mehmood Quraishi addressed a rally at Umerkot, observers believe, the event cost the PTI no less than a million. There must have been some well-wisher behind that as well.
Setting-up of election offices is another major head. On an average, any serious contender has to put up at least 10 offices in a constituency which remain functional round the clock for a minimum of 15 days. The availability of meals and refreshments for at least 50 people at least three times a day costs the candidate an average of Rs10,000 per day, or Rs1.5 million over 15 days.What happens on the polling day when meals are served at a mass scale, including the voters, is something that nobody wants to talk about except for the simple fact that this will be done regardless of the ECP guidelines and, indeed, without — repeat without — violating the ECP guidelines. Well-wishers will surely foot the bill.