Restricted observation, police interference, violence led to low turnout: FAFEN

Restrictions by police and election officials on FAFEN observation, errors in new electoral rolls, interference of police in electoral matters, incidents of violence and procedural irregularities underlined the relatively low turnout in by-elections in 10 national and provincial constituencies held on February 25, 2012, according to the Free and Fair Election Network’s (FAFEN) Preliminary By-Election Observation Report.
“Saturday’s electoral exercise, a year before the general elections are due, witnessed a low turnout that remained less than 30percent as compared to general elections when turnout in these constituencies remained 43.3%. Females turned out in lower numbers than men,” the report said. It said in NA-9 (Mardan) and PS-44 (Mianwali), females were barred from voting at several polling stations. The turnout remained highest in NA-140 (Kasur) at more than 50 percent, where FAFEN documented suspicious voting patterns at 16 polling stations. FAFEN deployed 380 trained observers for the observation of by-elections.
Observers spent between 45 and 60 minutes at each polling station to document their observations and findings on a standardised checklist based on the provisions of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1976, Conduct of Elections Rules 1977, and instructional handbooks the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has provided to election officials.
Although the ECP had accredited FAFEN observers and permitted them to observe all aspects of election day processes, police and election officials either disallowed them from entering the polling stations in more than 40 polling stations of 10 constituencies or restricted them from observing some critical processes such as counting of votes, the report claimed.
The returning officer refused permission to FAFEN personnel to observe the counting process in at least four polling stations in PP-18 (Attock). Processes of consolidation of results at the offices of the returning officers were completely blocked from observers’ access. In one of the constituencies in Multan, army cordoned off the RO office where consolidation of votes was taking place, keeping observers and media a hundreds of yards away.