General elections have always been interesting in Mardan district and despite the dangers now, a tough contest is expected this time too. Public meetings and door-to-door canvassing have begun here, and several parties have fielded candidates that together outnumber those that had their eyes on success in the last general polls of 2008. As the second largest district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mardan has three national and eight provincial assembly seats (after Peshawar’s four and 11 respectively). It’s the home town of former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti.
The former ruling party in the province, the Awami National Party (ANP), won only three provincial assembly seats and one national assembly seat here in the last elections while the Pakistan Peoples Party got four provincial and one national assembly seat. The third national assembly seat was won by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl.
This time around, a major shift in voters’ behaviour is likely to characterise the election in the district; the parties that won in 2008 won’t have smooth sailing. Candidates have been fielded by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz-i-Pakistan and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid.
In the last polls, Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti won NA-9 on an ANP ticket, Maulana Mohammad Qasim bagged NA-10 with a JUI-F ticket and Abdul Akbar Khan saw success in NA-11 as the PPP candidate. (He later vacated the seat and his party’s Khanzada Khan won it.) The ANP’s Himatyatullah Mayar, a former district nazim, was elected in the by-election when Khwaja Hoti resigned NA-9.
Over the decades past, the PPP and the ANP have enjoyed support in NA-9, with the former winning in 1970, 1988 and 1993. The ANP held sway in 1990, 1997 and 2008.
NA-10 is a mixed bag and home to swing voters. The JUI-F’s nominees emerged victorious in 1988, 2002 and 2008, while the seat went to the PPP in 1990 and 1993.
Similarly, voters’ response in NA-11 has varied, though the JI’s Maulana Gohar Rehman was elected in 1985 and his son Maulana Ata-ur-Rehman won in 2002. In 2008, the PPP candidate, Abdul Akbar Khan, was successful in winning the seat.
Seven of the eight provincial assembly seats in Mardan were won by candidates fielded by the religious-party alliance of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in 2002. The last polls saw the ANP victorious in PK-23, PK-24 and PK-25 and the PPP in PK-26, PK-27, PK-29 and PK-30. The JUI-F won PK-28 last time around.
For the upcoming polls, the PTI has emerged as a challenge for experienced campaigners. The atmosphere signals thrilling competition and political analysts say that Mardan will remain central to the country’s politics. Efforts to forge alliances and seat-to-seat adjustments have stalled and indications are that an open contest will take place.
Both the former ruling PPP and the ANP will likely face tough situations within the parties as workers in some constituencies that were previously won by one of these parties appear unhappy over the award of tickets and feel that they were not taken into confidence regarding party affairs. This time, candidates who were elected in previous polls on PPP and ANP tickets have not been picked up by their respective parties, prompting them to contest independently. This will impact both the parties, and the internal differences are likely to benefit the rival parties’ candidates — though the ANP has on its side massive development work in the district.
This time, there are over 30 contenders for the district’s eight provincial and three national seats, which is double the figure of 2008.
ANP and PPP leaders have started wooing estranged workers to get their support for the polls and simultaneously the other parties have also geared up their campaigns. Last month, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif addressed a rally in Mardan.
Yet no senior ANP leader has made a public appearance here in view of the threat from the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan; the party recently restricted the movement of its leaders Asfandyar Wali Khan and Mian Iftikhar Hussain. For its part, the PPP is beset with a similar problem of lacking charismatic leaders to woo voters to its side.
