Happens not at the ballot box but behind the scenes
Elections in South Asia, especially in Pakistan, are an incredibly chaotic process, specifically when it comes to ensuring their fairness as the body governing the election process i.e., the election commission is not able to implement electoral finance regulations.
Most people seem to think that illegal activities take place at the ballot box level and a lot of emphasis is given to voter lists and constituencies as well as fake voting by the media, but the real manipulation takes place somewhere else.
In the 2013 elections official media spend by parties is at a figure higher than eight billion PKR. This is clearly indicative of how mass programming via both mainstream and social media was used in the last elections to influence, coerce and manipulate the electoral process. There have also been many accounts and reports from within these media organisations about orders to speak in a certain tone and agenda because the said channel was paid big advertising bucks by someone.
Mainstream and digital media are both extremely powerful propaganda tools and have been used throughout history to build and produce narratives among nations that include how a person perceives a candidate or a party in the electoral process. Its no coincidence that pop culture and narrative building via media is done before the onset of wars as well to make sure that the populace doesn’t rise against the actions taken by the government.
With this much of a media blitz going on unchecked and media houses allegedly supporting different political parties or favouring them in the tone of their programming, the general public is continuously being force-fed a diet of messaging which ultimately results in their decision to vote for a candidate. The decision which was supposedly in their hands is basically dictated to them dressed up in bright hues and lighted talk shows and they become puppets pulled by well oiled and lit strings.
Part of the problem, obviously, is the complete absurdity of our electoral finance law which seems to still be calculating media spends as per the 1960s as it gives a person contesting for a national assembly seat the budget ceiling of 1.5 million PKR in election expenditure. This budget, according to current media spend, is about enough to last half a day on the campaign trail in Pakistan even by conservative estimates. A more realistic ceiling would be around the 40-50 million mark which needs to come into effect if there is any hope of the ECP ever implementing this law.
So what should we as voters do? First of all, we need to start monitoring the monitors ourselves and raise our voices for reform of this archaic electoral finance law, initially towards realistic figures and then towards its strict implementation. The ECP on their side can hold stakeholder meetings with civil society and representatives of political parties to form a process to ensure that anyone who flouts this law will be disqualified instantly from the electoral process. We need to understand that until the populace demands action, our government won’t wake up from their slumber.
Let us not forget that the whole level playing field idea will also come into play when this law is reformed and implemented because currently independent candidates stand no chance to even stand against the onslaught of paid media content in elections. Once this law is implemented, they will at least have an idea as to how much money they require to be on the same level as a political party’s candidate. Also curbs should definitely be placed on the airtime of a political nature per broadcast channel in our country to ensure free and fair reporting of facts by PEMRA that seems to go into a state of cryogenic freeze when elections happen.
Today’s world and its perceptions are governed by our content consumption and if that content is unregulated by the ECP, no Pakistani election can even begin to approach the free and fair state. I think it is time all of us voters woke up and realised that we are being herded like sheep into a common direction.
