Khyber Pukhtunkhuwa Local Bodies Election 2015
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After JI and AJIP slamming dhandli allegations on PTI, now JI and AJIP fighting amongst themselves....What a F***ed up place KPK has become politically
Ayesha Gullalai chants dhandli mantra
Widespread use of "Ghair Sayasi Police" for political motives....
Ayesha Gullalai chants dhandli mantra
Widespread use of "Ghair Sayasi Police" for political motives....
Peaceful Civilian
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Jamate e islami is a snake....If you want them to keep Molvis in line, you have to become corrupt like molvis and throw money on them for long term alliance.
I said many times in past that don't trust on Molvi!
I said many times in past that don't trust on Molvi!
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Footprints: Polls mismanaged
AT their hujras, district and town councillor candidates are surrounded by supporters. General and youth councillor candidates chat at corner shops. Colourful posters and graffiti depicting election symbols adorn the walls.
We are here, making our way through mostly unpaved streets, to look up polling stations in Urmar Payan union council in Peshawar, which saw violence during the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections on May 30.
We reach a government school that was used as a polling station last Saturday. Today, it’s locked. Someone locates the watchman who brings the keys.
Inside a classroom, boards proclaiming ‘presiding officer’, ‘polling booth’, etc., are pasted on the walls. Chairs and tables have been scattered, some windowpanes broken with the shards still lying on the floor. Amongst them are pieces of paper, wrappers, biscuit packs and some torn-out ballot papers.
Know more :Polling concludes for crucial LG polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
“The ballot box was placed here,” somebody tells me. “When they came in, they broke ballot boxes and windowpanes,” interjects another person who follows us in from the street. More people gather, each one giving his view of events.
“It all started from this women’s polling station,” explains Iftikhar Ali, a PML-N supporter. “Men were not allowed to enter but PTI men did and stamped ballots. When candidates and supporters from other parties came to know, they rushed here too. They had to break down the door. They saw PTI people stamping ballots in bulk. Then more people came in and a scuffle broke out. Eventually, polling was cancelled and the army took away the ballot boxes. Then some people got violent at the men’s polling station and electioneering in the entire union council was put off,” continues Ali.
“They were all party to it: the government, the administration and the police,” alleges Haji Malik Nisar Khan, the PML-N candidate for district councillor. “They told our female voters that the stamp to cast votes had not arrived yet. They allowed PTI voters to go in and vote.”
“After two hours of polling, only 29 votes could be cast at the men’s polling station,” he adds. “At the women’s polling station, 211 votes were cast. When people heard about this rigging, they reached the women’s polling station. By the time we arrived, some people had already broken the ballot boxes and left.”
The Jamaat-i-Islami’s local leader Latif-ur-Rehman blames the “educated and trained” female polling agents of the PTI.
“The PTI’s female agents were educated, highly trained and shrewd. I brought around 130 women with me to vote. PTI agents were telling other women to come in and vote for the bat [the PTI’s election symbol]. The security guard would not allow me to enter. The PTI’s women influenced all the local women, who are naive and unaware of the process. Then many people came in here and broke everything.”
The ANP candidate for district councillor also believes that the reason behind the violence was “outsider women”. “The PTI women who had come here from other parts of Peshawar were running the show,” says Malik Qamar-uz-Zaman. “They were allowing only those local women to vote who wanted to vote for the PTI.”
Now, we look for the PTI candidate. He asks us to contact him another day. Upon insistence, he invites us for a meeting in main Peshawar city.
“The entire media has teamed up against our party. That’s why I avoid meeting journalists,” says Naveed Khan Barki. Then he comes to the point.
“Basically, they did not want women to vote. The PML-N, ANP, independent candidates, everybody asked me to bar women from voting, but I did not agree. I knew local women didn’t know about the polling process, so I gathered all my female relatives from different parts of Peshawar and made them agents in my union council. When they saw that the majority of the women were voting for the PTI and our agents were doing well, the opponents resorted to violence,” he explains. “They were from the PML-N and other parties. They even fired shots in the air.”
A female assistant presiding officer who was assigned duty at this station says they were not allowed to work.
“When we arrived there with the polling material, the station was already packed to capacity. The women here did even not know how to make a queue,” says the assistant presiding officer who does not want to give her name.
“We had to set up three booths but the crowd allowed us to make only two. There were almost five agents from each party and they were unable to handle the situation. As soon as we succeeded in getting the polling under way, a mob of men intruded and ordered that everything be closed down. They broke everything they saw. Many of them took away polling material. We had to take refuge in a police station,” she recalls. “All this happened because of the shortage of staff and because people were hostile towards polling.”
Sajjad Khan Tarakzai, a senior journalist who has monitored political developments here for two decades, says the violence should not be given undue consideration given the large scale of local government elections and local norms.
“These elections were a huge activity,” he comments. “Almost everyone was involved because there were so many candidates, and it was at the real grass-roots level. Plus, people here carry weapons. So violence was not a distant possibility.”
AT their hujras, district and town councillor candidates are surrounded by supporters. General and youth councillor candidates chat at corner shops. Colourful posters and graffiti depicting election symbols adorn the walls.
We are here, making our way through mostly unpaved streets, to look up polling stations in Urmar Payan union council in Peshawar, which saw violence during the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local government elections on May 30.
We reach a government school that was used as a polling station last Saturday. Today, it’s locked. Someone locates the watchman who brings the keys.
Inside a classroom, boards proclaiming ‘presiding officer’, ‘polling booth’, etc., are pasted on the walls. Chairs and tables have been scattered, some windowpanes broken with the shards still lying on the floor. Amongst them are pieces of paper, wrappers, biscuit packs and some torn-out ballot papers.
Know more :Polling concludes for crucial LG polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
“The ballot box was placed here,” somebody tells me. “When they came in, they broke ballot boxes and windowpanes,” interjects another person who follows us in from the street. More people gather, each one giving his view of events.
“It all started from this women’s polling station,” explains Iftikhar Ali, a PML-N supporter. “Men were not allowed to enter but PTI men did and stamped ballots. When candidates and supporters from other parties came to know, they rushed here too. They had to break down the door. They saw PTI people stamping ballots in bulk. Then more people came in and a scuffle broke out. Eventually, polling was cancelled and the army took away the ballot boxes. Then some people got violent at the men’s polling station and electioneering in the entire union council was put off,” continues Ali.
“They were all party to it: the government, the administration and the police,” alleges Haji Malik Nisar Khan, the PML-N candidate for district councillor. “They told our female voters that the stamp to cast votes had not arrived yet. They allowed PTI voters to go in and vote.”
“After two hours of polling, only 29 votes could be cast at the men’s polling station,” he adds. “At the women’s polling station, 211 votes were cast. When people heard about this rigging, they reached the women’s polling station. By the time we arrived, some people had already broken the ballot boxes and left.”
The Jamaat-i-Islami’s local leader Latif-ur-Rehman blames the “educated and trained” female polling agents of the PTI.
“The PTI’s female agents were educated, highly trained and shrewd. I brought around 130 women with me to vote. PTI agents were telling other women to come in and vote for the bat [the PTI’s election symbol]. The security guard would not allow me to enter. The PTI’s women influenced all the local women, who are naive and unaware of the process. Then many people came in here and broke everything.”
The ANP candidate for district councillor also believes that the reason behind the violence was “outsider women”. “The PTI women who had come here from other parts of Peshawar were running the show,” says Malik Qamar-uz-Zaman. “They were allowing only those local women to vote who wanted to vote for the PTI.”
Now, we look for the PTI candidate. He asks us to contact him another day. Upon insistence, he invites us for a meeting in main Peshawar city.
“The entire media has teamed up against our party. That’s why I avoid meeting journalists,” says Naveed Khan Barki. Then he comes to the point.
“Basically, they did not want women to vote. The PML-N, ANP, independent candidates, everybody asked me to bar women from voting, but I did not agree. I knew local women didn’t know about the polling process, so I gathered all my female relatives from different parts of Peshawar and made them agents in my union council. When they saw that the majority of the women were voting for the PTI and our agents were doing well, the opponents resorted to violence,” he explains. “They were from the PML-N and other parties. They even fired shots in the air.”
A female assistant presiding officer who was assigned duty at this station says they were not allowed to work.
“When we arrived there with the polling material, the station was already packed to capacity. The women here did even not know how to make a queue,” says the assistant presiding officer who does not want to give her name.
“We had to set up three booths but the crowd allowed us to make only two. There were almost five agents from each party and they were unable to handle the situation. As soon as we succeeded in getting the polling under way, a mob of men intruded and ordered that everything be closed down. They broke everything they saw. Many of them took away polling material. We had to take refuge in a police station,” she recalls. “All this happened because of the shortage of staff and because people were hostile towards polling.”
Sajjad Khan Tarakzai, a senior journalist who has monitored political developments here for two decades, says the violence should not be given undue consideration given the large scale of local government elections and local norms.
“These elections were a huge activity,” he comments. “Almost everyone was involved because there were so many candidates, and it was at the real grass-roots level. Plus, people here carry weapons. So violence was not a distant possibility.”
niaz
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A very good insight to what happened in the KPK Local Bodies elections.
Muhammad Qasim Jan
Friday, June 05, 2015
The local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were held after a long break of one decade. Historically, LG elections in Pakistan have always been held by military dictators. This time we must appreciate that these elections were held by a democratically elected provincial government.
Keeping in view the struggle of the PTI for ensuring free and fair elections, the people were expecting that these elections would be held in an environment free from political and administrative influence. The PTI still enjoys popularity among the masses in considerable areas of KP and didn’t need to use any unfair practices to ensure winning majority seats. However, unfortunately, due to several factors, the party couldn’t resist following the footsteps of what it terms the status-quo parties. The PTI too ended up following the same old tactics of cheating and stealing the public mandate.
The foremost reason is the fact that the entire present leadership of the PTI (with the exception of Imran Khan and a few others) has been nourished in and acquired from the same, what the PTI calls, status-quo corrupt parties. Second, the PTI central leadership was unable to develop and share a code of election conduct for its own party workers to follow.
Third, confidence from the 2013 win, expectation of continued popularity andthe wish to clean sweep the province didn’t allow the PTI to form productive alliances with like-minded parties and groups. Fourth, when the campaign started, the PTI leadership sensed (and the present results confirmed) that its popularity in several districts was challenged by the JI and the tri-partite alliance. Resultantly, people witnessed rigging, administrative corruption and use of police force.
Generally, the women of KP have little exposure to the political process and were the prime target of political harassment. Women voters carrying opposition badges or voter slips were informed that their names were not registered although the ECP’s SMS service confirmed their votes at the same polling booths.
Women political workers of PTI forced old ladies to vote for ‘the bat’ and officials seemed helpless to stop them. After receiving their thumb impressions, two or three ballots papers were handed over to women voters instead of all seven. The ballot papers of district and tehsil/town council were mostly not provided.
Citing lame excuses, women presiding officers stopped polling several times without any justification; they forced (in some cases through the police) all polling agents to go outside the booths; what might have happened inside should not be a mystery.
Campaigning by political workers (mostly from the PTI) inside polling stations was observed across the board; the police or concerned staff didn’t take any notice. On several stations, the polling agents were not allowed to be present at the time of counting. While the agents resisted, they were forced to stay outside at least for some time. The officials didn’t announce results even after complete counting. In many cases, the officials refused to provide results on prescribed result sheets or to even sign the results.
In different areas, the district and town candidates of opposing parties were denied entry inside polling stations. However, the PTI candidates (and key workers) had easy access to even women’s polling booths.
Fake/additional ballot papers (mostly district and town) were stamped and polled on women’s stations even in presence of polling agents. The agents resisted and asked police to intervene but to no use.
In one polling station for women in Hayatabad, Peshawar, the results were not announced till late night. When approached, police didn’t allow entry to anyone, and very interestingly, after a long wait, a PTI male agent (flanked by the police) emerged on the school boundary wall to announce results to the public.
In another instance an independent town candidate caught a lady red-handed with a voting stamp; he asked a police officer to take action but the officer refused saying such an action was in nobody’s favour.
The large-scale rigging and use of administrative and police force by the government has dented the PTI’s image among the masses. As a remedy, there should be re-election – at least in select districts with proven reports of irregularities. The PTI government should cooperate with the ECP in ensuring free and fair elections. Here are some suggestions for the ECP to check pre-poll rigging and ensure free and fair polling day management.
While the police have not proved their impartiality, administrative and security control should be given to the FC and/or army; and the police force should perform under their control.
High-grade civil servants and/or army officers should be employed as presiding and deputy presiding officers. The presiding officers should be empowered to exercise magisterial powers. The ECP should strictly ensure that its election rules and regulation are followed. There should be a strict check on any party influencing voters on polling day.
The polling camps of parties should not be allowed or be installed at a considerable distance from polling stations. No vehicles shuld be allowed to display party flags or candidates’ posters on polling day. Party workers should not be allowed to accompany voters to the polling stations. No one in the polling stations should be allowed to wear party signs, election symbols, colours, badges, caps, bands or clothes etc. Carrying arms or accompanying guards (except official security) on polling day should also be banned.
The writer is the executive director of the
Institute of Research and Development Studies (IRDS).
Elections in KP - Muhammad Qasim Jan
Muhammad Qasim Jan
Friday, June 05, 2015
The local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were held after a long break of one decade. Historically, LG elections in Pakistan have always been held by military dictators. This time we must appreciate that these elections were held by a democratically elected provincial government.
Keeping in view the struggle of the PTI for ensuring free and fair elections, the people were expecting that these elections would be held in an environment free from political and administrative influence. The PTI still enjoys popularity among the masses in considerable areas of KP and didn’t need to use any unfair practices to ensure winning majority seats. However, unfortunately, due to several factors, the party couldn’t resist following the footsteps of what it terms the status-quo parties. The PTI too ended up following the same old tactics of cheating and stealing the public mandate.
The foremost reason is the fact that the entire present leadership of the PTI (with the exception of Imran Khan and a few others) has been nourished in and acquired from the same, what the PTI calls, status-quo corrupt parties. Second, the PTI central leadership was unable to develop and share a code of election conduct for its own party workers to follow.
Third, confidence from the 2013 win, expectation of continued popularity andthe wish to clean sweep the province didn’t allow the PTI to form productive alliances with like-minded parties and groups. Fourth, when the campaign started, the PTI leadership sensed (and the present results confirmed) that its popularity in several districts was challenged by the JI and the tri-partite alliance. Resultantly, people witnessed rigging, administrative corruption and use of police force.
Generally, the women of KP have little exposure to the political process and were the prime target of political harassment. Women voters carrying opposition badges or voter slips were informed that their names were not registered although the ECP’s SMS service confirmed their votes at the same polling booths.
Women political workers of PTI forced old ladies to vote for ‘the bat’ and officials seemed helpless to stop them. After receiving their thumb impressions, two or three ballots papers were handed over to women voters instead of all seven. The ballot papers of district and tehsil/town council were mostly not provided.
Citing lame excuses, women presiding officers stopped polling several times without any justification; they forced (in some cases through the police) all polling agents to go outside the booths; what might have happened inside should not be a mystery.
Campaigning by political workers (mostly from the PTI) inside polling stations was observed across the board; the police or concerned staff didn’t take any notice. On several stations, the polling agents were not allowed to be present at the time of counting. While the agents resisted, they were forced to stay outside at least for some time. The officials didn’t announce results even after complete counting. In many cases, the officials refused to provide results on prescribed result sheets or to even sign the results.
In different areas, the district and town candidates of opposing parties were denied entry inside polling stations. However, the PTI candidates (and key workers) had easy access to even women’s polling booths.
Fake/additional ballot papers (mostly district and town) were stamped and polled on women’s stations even in presence of polling agents. The agents resisted and asked police to intervene but to no use.
In one polling station for women in Hayatabad, Peshawar, the results were not announced till late night. When approached, police didn’t allow entry to anyone, and very interestingly, after a long wait, a PTI male agent (flanked by the police) emerged on the school boundary wall to announce results to the public.
In another instance an independent town candidate caught a lady red-handed with a voting stamp; he asked a police officer to take action but the officer refused saying such an action was in nobody’s favour.
The large-scale rigging and use of administrative and police force by the government has dented the PTI’s image among the masses. As a remedy, there should be re-election – at least in select districts with proven reports of irregularities. The PTI government should cooperate with the ECP in ensuring free and fair elections. Here are some suggestions for the ECP to check pre-poll rigging and ensure free and fair polling day management.
While the police have not proved their impartiality, administrative and security control should be given to the FC and/or army; and the police force should perform under their control.
High-grade civil servants and/or army officers should be employed as presiding and deputy presiding officers. The presiding officers should be empowered to exercise magisterial powers. The ECP should strictly ensure that its election rules and regulation are followed. There should be a strict check on any party influencing voters on polling day.
The polling camps of parties should not be allowed or be installed at a considerable distance from polling stations. No vehicles shuld be allowed to display party flags or candidates’ posters on polling day. Party workers should not be allowed to accompany voters to the polling stations. No one in the polling stations should be allowed to wear party signs, election symbols, colours, badges, caps, bands or clothes etc. Carrying arms or accompanying guards (except official security) on polling day should also be banned.
The writer is the executive director of the
Institute of Research and Development Studies (IRDS).
Elections in KP - Muhammad Qasim Jan
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