Like all previous elections, the 2024 general election in Pakistan concluded with a slew of rigging allegations. Since no political party could secure a simple majority in the National Assembly, parties across the board have questioned the results. Living up to its history, the most clamorous among these is Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which won the most seats in the National Assembly and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. While there may have been some irregularities here and there, we saw a concerted campaign to build public perception that the election was rigged and discredit the whole electoral exercise. In addition, premature results announcements by private news channels created an atmosphere of uncertainty and damaged the credibility of the institutions of Pakistan.
Almost a week after the election, on 17 February 2024, then-Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chattha held a press conference, claiming that he was pressured to manipulate election results in the district, blaming the Chief Election Commissioner and Chief Justice of Pakistan. After this press conference, the electronic media went into a frenzy with prime-time shows discussing his allegation without a shred of evidence. On the other hand, social media accounts linked with PTI spewed propaganda to further strengthen the idea that the election was heavily rigged.
After the committee tasked with investigating the ex-commissioner’s allegations found no evidence, Liaquat Ali Chattha admitted before the committee that he made his statement about rigging at the behest of a PTI leader and apologised to the Election Commission. The government has recommended strict action against Mr Chattha under extraordinary provisions. However, the damage has been done. The propaganda churned out in the week since he made his first statement has put a question mark on the credibility of the Election Commission in people’s minds. His new statement may only strengthen the public perception that regularly feeds on conspiracy theories posted on social media platforms, claiming coercion of public officials to fall in line with the powers that be. It is difficult to fill the trust deficit with mere statements.
Several political commentators observed that the unofficial announcement of progressive results based on Form-45 created chaos in an extremely polarised society like Pakistan.
A similar situation arose on the eve of the election held on 8 February. In a race for ratings, private television networks started announcing partial results shortly after the polling time ended. It was both confusing and dangerous. Anyone familiar with the electoral process knows that after the polling time ends, it takes several hours to complete the counting of ballots, result verification by polling agents, and transportation of polling materials, including ballot papers, from the polling station to the returning officer’s office, who then consolidates results from various polling stations to announce the final result. Instead of announcing consolidated results, certain television channels started announcing partial results even before they had reached the returning officer’s office. Candidates and voters who thought they were winning based on, say, the result of 40 per cent polling stations were disappointed and alleged rigging when the complete, consolidated result was announced by the Election Commission.
Several political commentators observed that the unofficial announcement of progressive results based on Form-45 created chaos in an extremely polarised society like Pakistan. Veteran journalist Nusrat Javeed tweeted: “Channels don’t have these results, officially. They rely on Form-45, as they are received in candidates’ offices. India had stopped this practice in the late 1990s. In countries like ours, projection of progressive results, that too on live TV, always lead[s] to chaos.”
This practice needs to stop. There are other ways to ensure transparency of elections than allowing television newsrooms to announce partial results of various polling stations and misleading the public on who is winning. Like games, there are times in elections when the competition is tough and no one knows who will end up winning. In such cases, a false public perception of a candidate winning on news screens but losing in official consolidated results damages institutional credibility. It is hoped that the new government will legislate to do away with the practice of announcing progressive election results.
As it happened in the hours following the polling, the urgency created by television channels built a perception that the Election Commission was unnecessarily delaying the election results in order to change them. Such perception was further strengthened when some losing candidates made statements that candidates who polled the most votes were not announced as winners. Naturally, this amplified the narrative of largescale rigging, which is not true.
Like games, there are times in elections when the competition is tough and no one knows who will end up winning. In such cases, a false public perception of a candidate winning on news screens but losing in official consolidated results damages institutional credibility.
In response to the rigging allegations, the Election Commission released a statement comparing its performance in the general elections of 2018 and 2024. The statement noted that it took 72 hours to post the election results in 2018, while it took only 48 hours to post the results in 2024. It must be remembered that there were allegations of massive and very visible rigging in 2018 too, but the party that benefited from this rigging had no problem with a 72-hour processing time of final results. Now that the results are different from their liking, a 48-hour processing time looks too long.
The truth of the matter is, that despite irregularities, the election reflects the mandate people have given to their respective candidates. A report shortly released after the election by an independent civil society network FAFEN (Free and Fair Election Network) observed, “Despite a spiral of allegations by multiple political parties about not getting a level playing field as well as a spike in militant violence in some parts of the country, none of the political parties backed out of the electoral race. All parties continued until the last minute their efforts to muster public support, which augurs well for Pakistan’s struggling democracy. In addition, the pre-election perception of an unlevel playing field does not seem to have prevented the accusing political parties from gaining electoral ground.”
Those who still disagree with the result may seek legal remedy, but using the election results to agitate against the new government and destabilise the country is in no one’s interest.
The writer is a former coordinator to the prime minister on commerce and industry.
