By-poll message
By-polls, held during the term of a particular government, are always interesting since they deliver a message regarding people's perspective upon its performance. The key message from Thursday's exercise, as people polled for 19 provincial and five National Assembly seats in Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP was one of declining interest in the process. Turn-out remained low everywhere, while there was also a quite visible lack of enthusiasm among those who turned out. The newspaper pictures of polling staff sleeping while waiting for sparse voters is an image that drives home this fact.
For any government, this is a clear-cut warning. While it is true that deals between the PPP and the PML-N, who did not put up candidates against each other in all the seats, contributed to the lack of competitiveness, there were other factors too at play. Barely three months into the term of the government, people have begun losing hope in its ability to bring about change. The excitement seen in February, amidst optimistic predictions of a 'new order' has rapidly dissipated. Dismay regarding the socio-economic situation is higher than ever, the feeling is that far too little has been done to resolve it and while the expectations of people may be difficult to meet given the harsh ground realities that exist, the perception that all the key political players are interested mainly in themselves and are engaged in power games, instead of focusing attention on real issues, is a highly damaging one for any government.
As usually happens in a by-poll, the ruling coalition scored successes in most places. Of these partners, with most contests taking place in its Punjab stronghold, the PML-N was the biggest winner, bagging six provincial and three NA seats in the province, all with comfortable margins. The PPP's downslide in the Punjab, visible since the 1990s, continued – with the party losing two seats its candidates had vacated in the south of the province to independents. The PML-Q, which made bitter complaints of harassment, also picked up a provincial assembly seat. The pattern in Punjab should be one of concern for Mr Asif Ali Zardari and his team. While they have been devoting considerable time and effort to the province, and the provincial governor has also, abandoning a traditional position of neutrality, pledged to make Punjab a PPP bastion, these efforts do not seem to be winning over voters. The PPP has already lost much ground over the last two decades in the central Punjab; the trend now appears to be extending southwards – with the PML-N's more strident anti-Musharraf and pro-judiciary policies possibly having an impact.
In Sindh, the PPP picked up the one seat up for grab in Khairpur, defeating a PML-F candidate. In the Frontier, the general election pattern generally held, with two seats taken by the ANP, two by the PPP, two by independents and one by the PML-N.
Reports of sporadic poll-related violence in Punjab are disturbing. The worst incident took place in Mandi Bahauddin, where PPP activists allegedly kidnapped an assistant presiding officer and rival groups exchanged gunfire. The parties involved need to look into these incidents and make an effort to improve discipline. Overall though, the message from the by-polls is one of a loss of interest by voters. This is not a healthy sign within any democracy, which can only thrive if people are active participants in it. This is not the case in Pakistan today and its political leaders must try to assess the reasons for this, so that, as representatives of people, they can more directly address their concerns and cater to their needs.
Posted on: 27-June-2008
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Source: The News (http://www.thenews.com.pk)
For any government, this is a clear-cut warning. While it is true that deals between the PPP and the PML-N, who did not put up candidates against each other in all the seats, contributed to the lack of competitiveness, there were other factors too at play. Barely three months into the term of the government, people have begun losing hope in its ability to bring about change. The excitement seen in February, amidst optimistic predictions of a 'new order' has rapidly dissipated. Dismay regarding the socio-economic situation is higher than ever, the feeling is that far too little has been done to resolve it and while the expectations of people may be difficult to meet given the harsh ground realities that exist, the perception that all the key political players are interested mainly in themselves and are engaged in power games, instead of focusing attention on real issues, is a highly damaging one for any government.
As usually happens in a by-poll, the ruling coalition scored successes in most places. Of these partners, with most contests taking place in its Punjab stronghold, the PML-N was the biggest winner, bagging six provincial and three NA seats in the province, all with comfortable margins. The PPP's downslide in the Punjab, visible since the 1990s, continued – with the party losing two seats its candidates had vacated in the south of the province to independents. The PML-Q, which made bitter complaints of harassment, also picked up a provincial assembly seat. The pattern in Punjab should be one of concern for Mr Asif Ali Zardari and his team. While they have been devoting considerable time and effort to the province, and the provincial governor has also, abandoning a traditional position of neutrality, pledged to make Punjab a PPP bastion, these efforts do not seem to be winning over voters. The PPP has already lost much ground over the last two decades in the central Punjab; the trend now appears to be extending southwards – with the PML-N's more strident anti-Musharraf and pro-judiciary policies possibly having an impact.
In Sindh, the PPP picked up the one seat up for grab in Khairpur, defeating a PML-F candidate. In the Frontier, the general election pattern generally held, with two seats taken by the ANP, two by the PPP, two by independents and one by the PML-N.
Reports of sporadic poll-related violence in Punjab are disturbing. The worst incident took place in Mandi Bahauddin, where PPP activists allegedly kidnapped an assistant presiding officer and rival groups exchanged gunfire. The parties involved need to look into these incidents and make an effort to improve discipline. Overall though, the message from the by-polls is one of a loss of interest by voters. This is not a healthy sign within any democracy, which can only thrive if people are active participants in it. This is not the case in Pakistan today and its political leaders must try to assess the reasons for this, so that, as representatives of people, they can more directly address their concerns and cater to their needs.
Posted on: 27-June-2008
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Source: The News (http://www.thenews.com.pk)
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