ISLAMABAD: Thousands submitted nomination papers across Pakistan for the upcoming general elections for the national and provincial assemblies on Sunday, with the exercise marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued the schedule for national polls on Dec. 15, putting an end to uncertainty and rumors surrounding the exercise. Candidates were initially given the deadline to file their nomination papers from Dec. 20-22, which was later extended to Dec. 24.
The returning officers will now scrutinize the papers from Dec. 25-30 during which they would either accept or reject the nominations. The ECP will allot election symbols to candidates on Jan. 13, with the polling date set for Feb. 8.
The PTI’s candidates moved the Lahore High Court and district and provincial election offices in Punjab this week with complaints that their applicants were either being arrested or their nomination papers were snatched. They filed a slew of petitions in the LHC regarding specific constituencies in Punjab, where they alleged that their nomination papers were not accepted at first but were later submitted following the court’s orders.
“We have been compiling the data to know as to how many of our candidates could not submit their nomination papers due to security agencies’ highhandedness,” Raoof Hasan, PTI’s information secretary, told Arab News.
Khan has been in jail since August following his conviction in a case in which he was charged with illegally selling state gifts. The cricketer-turned-politician denies any wrongdoing, alleging that the caretaker government, Pakistan’s powerful military, and the election regulator are using unfair means to keep him and the PTI away from elections. All three deny his allegations.
Other PTI leaders have accused police officers of entering their homes without search warrants and harassing their families as an intimidation tactic.
The office of the provincial election commissioner of Punjab wrote a letter to the chief secretary of the province on Sunday, a copy of which is available with Arab News.
In the letter, the commissioner noted that the filing of nomination papers has been marred by incidents of “fear, intimidation, snatching of nomination papers and other such acts at the hands of the police.”
“We are by far the most popular political party in Pakistan and would be using all legal and constitutional means to field our candidates in national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies,” Hasan said.
Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province will be the most hotly contested battlefield for all parties since it holds the majority seats,141 for the National Assembly out of a total of 266 and 297 provincial assembly seats.
Political analysts said reports of arresting, abducting, and snatching nomination papers from one party’s candidates have raised “serious questions” about the transparency of the upcoming elections.
“This is not going to augur well for even the party that is ultimately declared winner after such serious question marks over the election process,” Zebunnisa Burki, a political analyst, told Arab News.
She said these “blatant violations” of regulations would prove that a “level playing field”— a euphemism for a fair contest for all political parties— was not provided to all parties contesting the election.
“It is bad politics and bad optics,” she said. “If PTI loses these elections even genuinely, they would be justified in saying the elections were rigged based on these pre-poll rigging incidents.”
Another political analyst, Dr. Huma Baqai, said a rigged election would not bode well for democracy and democratic practices in the country.
“The custodian of power should understand that a rigged election will not bring much-needed political and economic stability in the country,” she told Arab News.
