Too many deadlocks
The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) remarks about the post LG election deadlock in KP raise important concerns that must eventually be resolved, though there is little sign of the impasse breaking anytime soon. PTI’s response, the APC, was the party’s idea of trying to calm sentiment and make way for a probable reelection. But the Commission has made it pretty clear just why such a route cannot be adopted. PTI should have been more circumspect before making the call. It didn’t help that its knee jerk reaction to charges of rigging – something it never tires of accusing opponents of – was an arrangement with neither legal nor constitutional backing.
Yet as impossible as it is to hold a reelection – which, again, the ECP made crystal clear – there is no appeasing disgruntled parties for the moment. The only recourse for those who have complaints, it seems, is moving to post-election tribunals which examine cases individually. That, to an extent, explains calls for further agitation, not to mention increasing friction between the KP government and ECP. It doesn’t help matters that the chief minister was accused of leveraging state machinery to help his brother in the polls.
Considering elections in our neck of the woods are never undisputed, perhaps the ECP can ensure, at least in future, that it is more ahead of the curve in checking irregularities. All accusations surfacing after the KP LG election – rigging, false ballots, stealing, etc – appear, as if scripted, after almost every election. That due diligence on part of the authorities has still not improved says a lot about their commitment. Political parties, too, need to come to grips with the fact that local government elections are now a reality that cannot be avoided. And neither can blatant cheating go unchecked in the modern age. The defenders of democracy do themselves no favours by resisting devolution of political office and power. If anything, they stand to win more adherents by advocating local body elections and ensuring democratic government in letter and spirit.
