The fault, dear politicians, lies not with the EC
Five years of uninterrupted democratic era and political parties still captive to infantile attitudes. For instance, they have failed to overcome the indulgence in self-righteousness. The elections are fair only if their candidate wins. In case he doesn’t, they are rigged. A judgment by a court is fair only if it favours them. An accountability body is judicious only if it persecutes the opponents and raises no accusing finger at anyone in their fold. It is time they learnt to concede defeat gracefully, if not congratulate the winning opponent.
There was a universal consensus among observers that the recent by-elections in Punjab were in the main peaceful, free and fair. As happens in all elections, tempers ran high at places. There was however no report of rioting or serious injuries to anyone. There was aerial firing of a celebratory type at a couple of places which should not have taken place. The EC promptly directed the provincial government to register cases which was done. No written complaint was registered with the commission regarding any possible election malpractice. Despite this, the losing side continues to cast doubts through innuendo and insinuations on the performance of the ECP which is unfair. A prominent PML-Q leader groused that the commission remained a silent spectator over what he called the mismanagement of the polls. A PPP minister accused the PML-N of retaining its seats by using the government machinery. All this was in fact an attempt to shift the burden of defeat on someone else. What one expects from a complainant is that he would either present the incriminating evidence or concede the defeat. Instead, an attempt has been made to make a consensus EC controversial.
Another dangerous tendency is to look towards the courts or the army to resolve problems outside their domain and then accuse and criticise both. One can understand the utility of employing the army in FATA, Balochistan or a handful of sensitive constituencies elsewhere. One may also concede the replacement of the police inside the polling booths with FC as the former is more likely to be amenable to local pressures. It is, however, beyond one’s comprehension why Wattoo should demand stationing an army soldier to guard every ballot box. During the elections, the country will have a neutral caretaker setup. With an independent and powerful EC also in place, a better arrangement was never made in the past. The political parties should establish mechanism to oversee the general elections so that they are able to come up with hard evidence, instead of allegations, regarding any possible election malpractice.