Suddaf Chaudry

Rawalpindi: Plenty of disturbing reports are trickling in about the goings-on at Pakistan polling stations during the general elections a day ago, though Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former cricketer Imran Khan has been quick to declare his party the “winner”.

“We were successful and we were given a mandate," Khan said on TV.

But the polls were already preceded by predictions of vote-rigging and a controversial, violent and dirty campaign, and charges of military interference in the election became louder as results trickled in slowly.

PTI’s main rival Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of former PM Nawaz Sharif strongly objected to the results, which are not yet official.

The elusive Form 45

By 2.00am local time on Thursday, when the results were likely to be announced, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not have more than 50% of votes for any constituency, and overall results for only 33% of the seats.  

With only a third of the vote counted by 3.00am, Khan’s PTI – believed to be backed by the Pakistan Army - led in 110 seats, and the PML-N on 68. A total of 137 seats is required for a majority.

That was when the results stopped coming in.

PML-N’s Murriyam Aurangzeb held a press conference at night, accusing the army of full-scale interference. “Polling agents were expelled without being provided Form 45,” she told the media. "Form 45 should be provided if rigging is not being carried out behind closed doors.”

Other opposition parties followed suit and alleged systematic manipulation.

Form 45 is a document issued by the ECP, an independent body, which is a statement of the votes counted and is to be completed by the polling agents. This crucial paper was allegedly not issued by the polling staff as stipulated by the rules.

The ECP, however, blamed the disruption on a technical glitch in the British-imported transmission system. Election Commission secretary Babar Yaqoob insisted to the reporters “there’s no conspiracy, nor any pressure to delay results. The delay is being caused because the result transmission has collapsed”.

The ECP did not respond to our request for comment.

For the opposition parties, the commission’s response was not satisfactory.

At a late-night press meet, Nawaz’s brother and PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif emphatically said: “We wholly reject the results.” 

He also commented on the reported eviction of polling staff from dozens of stations by security personnel before the final tally was reached. “The mandate of millions of people who came out to vote has been humiliated. Our democratic process has been pushed back by decades,” Shahbaz added.

Social media afire

Social media was alight with footage from polling stations that seemed to support the charges of the rival parties.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) media consultant Omar Quaraishi tweeted: “When a senior polling official was asked for a copy of Form 45 he rather sheepishly replied "Copies Abhi Kum hain (not enough copies at the moment). The look on the official's face gives it all away -- that he is in no position to give a final vote count sheet till the engineered vote count is finalled”.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir echoed this by saying: “Counting hasn’t even started at GBSS Zamzama, our polling agents were sent back without official form 45 from at least 6 polling stations & our Polling Agents were forced out from one Station in Gizri.”

Yet another person, provincial candidate for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mohsin Dawar, also founding member of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, said on Twitter that "the army and the Military Intelligence personnel are snatching the identity cards of our supports in different areas to stop them from polling,"

PML-N and PPP also alleged that election monitors were kicked out and were given handwritten result tallies – photos of which circulated on social media - that they could not verify instead of official documentation.

At the time of writing, ECP’s Yaqoob reiterated that “we do accept any serious rigging or bogus-voting (charges). I have seen the video being shared, it is from a previous election. We have done a forensic evaluation and the ballot paper shown in the video was dark green, while the current counterfiles are light green. Also, the stamp used was transparent, therefore, this is disinformation.”

Ball in Khan’s court?

The 2018 elections in Pakistan have been marred with accusations of media censorship, intimidation of candidates, fears of a ‘creeping coup’, alleged interference of intelligence agencies and deadly attacks. If Khan has claimed victory and declared himself in charge, even calling the election “historic”, it is imperative that he ensure that the legitimacy of the electoral process is maintained, especially with the PML-N declaring it will explore legal and political options now.

In a televised address, the cricketer did promise to investigate the charges of interference in the polls – also saying “we will run Pakistan in a way in which it has never been run before, deliver the kind of governance never delivered before”.

The coming days will indicate if he sticks to his words.