Daska by-election

The ECP managed to conduct a clean election

Apparently, the winner of the Daska by-election in NA 175 was the PML(N) candidate, but the real winner was the Election Commission of Pakistan ECP). The PML(N)’s Nausheen Iftikhar has the satisfaction of serving out her late father’s term as an MNA, and of positioning herself for the next general election. The PML(N) would view the by-election victory, by the large margin of 21,000 votes, as a vindication of the PDM experiment, and as evidence that the break-up of the alliance had not produced a corresponding wave in favour of the government.

However, the ECP must account itself the greatest winner, for it has shown successfully that if a poll seems tainted, it will go for a re-poll, even if it has to take on the government of the day. Its readiness to engage in the legal battle that ensued when it ordered the re-poll, showed that it was determined to ensure the fairness of the poll. It thus showed that it was not willing to tolerate the kind of tactics that seemed to be on display in the original poll last month, when a number of polling station presiding officers went missing for a prolonged period of time. The ECP re-polled the whole constituency, not just the doubtful polling stations, perhaps because it felt even the results reported by presiding officers who did not go missing could not be trusted.

It is noteworthy that the re-polling was not marred by the kind of abuses that marred the original polling last month. There were show-cause notices issued to various persons, such as a PML(N) MPA and a PML(Q) leader. It is to be hoped that the ECP will not be distracted by its more recent success into ignoring the violation that led it to hold the re-polling. Those were ugly doings, barefaced attempts to manipulate the results, and the ECP must not tolerate any such attempts. There is enough doubt already about the result of elections, and it is up to the ECP to restore the trust in the system that is essential to obtaining the willing consent of the governed to the government. It cannot afford to rest on its laurels, and must look forward to the freedom, fairness and transparency of all by-elections it conducts between now and the next general election, as well as its next major challenge, which will be local body elections, which are being delayed only because the 2017 census results are to be notified.

Editorial
Editorial
The Editorial Department of Pakistan Today can be contacted at: [email protected].

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