ISLAMABAD: Unofficial results from polling stations of constituencies across Pakistan have started pouring in as counting of votes is under way after a long, eventful day of polling came to a close at 6pm.
A complete, consolidated result of a national and provincial assembly seat will, however, take time as there are hundreds of polling stations in each constituency. And the votes of each polling station need to be counted separately.
A complete picture about the party position in the wake of the tight electoral race will be somewhat clear by midnight today.
When voting began at 8 a.m., national and international election observers were present at the polling stations to witness the process.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Pakistan, Michael Gahler, expressed satisfaction over the opening of the polling process.
He said the opening process was “smooth and peaceful” and was satisfied with the security measures.
Gahler said the polling staff showed sealed and empty ballot boxes in the presence of political agents of different political parties so they could be the witness of a fair process.
A team of 120 EU observers has observed 87 constituencies, 32 percent of the total number of constituencies in Pakistan.
The chief observer said that their teams have observed the opening of polling process at about 40 polling stations and the EUEOM would give its preliminary assessment about the electoral process on Friday.
Different political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), however, complained about the slow voting process at the polling stations.
The PML-N and some other parties also demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extend voting time for at least two hours but this was rejected.
The ECP has set up a central election monitoring cell at its headquarters in Islamabad to address election-related complaints from candidates, political parties and the public instantly.
Altaf Ahmad, ECP director public relations, told Arab News that two separate teams, each comprising 48 members, have been working around the clock to respond immediately to any query or issue.
The ECP has received 645 complaints of various kinds today from across Pakistan and issued the directives to address them all as soon as possible, he said.
Shortly after the polling concluded, secretary ECP Babar Yaqoob talked to the media and expressed satisfaction on the overall arrangements for the polls. “If something bad happened anywhere, I apologize for that,” he said.
Another positive aspect of these elections that was reported by the local media is the female voters casting their votes for the first time in large numbers in conservative and remote areas of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
Women also turned up in large numbers in war-ravaged tribal areas of the country, including North Waziristan and South Waziristan, once believed to be the safe haven of militants.
The locals said that peace has been restored in the areas after numerous military operations and women are happy to use their right to vote in the elections after several years.
Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a non-governmental organization based in Islamabad, has expressed satisfaction over a level playing field for candidates of all parties.
Syed Abdul Ahad, media manager at FAFEN, told Arab News that the organization has deployed more than 18,000 observers in all constituencies of the National Assembly to monitor the electoral process.
“So far we have not heard back from our observers as they were not allowed to use their mobile phones in the polling stations,” he said. “The overall process seems to be satisfactory but we will be able to give an initial report after the counting of all the polling stations concludes.”
Fayyaz Raja, a political analyst in charge of the election cell at a private television channel, said that it was a big challenge for the state institutions to hold elections in the given law and order situation, but they have conducted it successfully.
“In short, I’ll say that terrorists lose, democracy wins,” he told Arab News, adding that it is now a test of the political leaders and the forthcoming ruling party “to come up to expectations of the people by improving the governance.”
