ISLAMABAD: The vote count was underway after Pakistan held by-elections in 21 national and provincial assembly constituencies on Sunday, Pakistani state media reported, amid suspension of mobile phone networks in parts of Punjab and Balochistan provinces.
The by-polls were the first major electoral exercise since the Feb. 8 national election in Pakistan, which were marred by a nationwide mobile network outage and result delays, leading to accusations that the vote was rigged and drawing concern from rights groups and foreign governments.
Polling began at 8am and continued till 5pm for five National Assembly seats, 12 Punjab Assembly seats, and two seats each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies. They were left vacant due to postponement of polls in Feb. or were vacated by lawmakers, who won multiple seats.
“The Election Commission of Pakistan has established the Election Monitoring Control Room at its secretariat in Islamabad to monitor the by-elections being held in different parts of the country,” the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported, adding the control room would remain operational till the culmination of the exercise.
On Saturday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which regulates Internet in the country, said the decision to keep cellular services suspended in specific districts of Punjab and Balochistan on April 21-22 was taken on the directions of the interior ministry.
“This decision has been taken to safeguard the integrity and security of the electoral process,” the regulator said in a statement.
Reacting to the PTA’s announcement on Saturday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party, led by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, said the suspension of mobile phone services in districts where by-polls were being held was “unconstitutional and illegal.”
“The Internet shutdown is unconstitutional, illegal and shameful, and a plan to rig the results,” it said.
The federal government authorized the deployment of civil armed forces and Pakistan Army to assist the ECP in peaceful conduct of by-polls.
In its code of conduct, the ECP asked troops not to respond on their own to “an apparent irregularity” outside a polling station and bring the matter to the knowledge of the presiding officer for any necessary legal action.
The security forces were also directed not to “interfere in the counting process in any manner” and perform their duty outside the polling stations diligently, so that the counting process could be completed in a peaceful manner.