The volatile security is hampering electioneering activities as most of secular political parties, including Awami National Party's, Pakistan People's Party parliamentary, and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, are finding it hard to arrange big gatherings for electioneering in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal region.
With only about 19 days left before the May 11 election, the elections campaign wasn't substantial geared up as the major political parties, like ANP, PPPP, and PML-Nawaz have abandoned their huge political gatherings amid the increasing security threats after co-ordinated attacks by terrorists'. These parties are even unable to hold corner meetings due to strong hold of non-state actors in Fata. The candidates and party workers have got a massive risky job at hands to contact voters and seek their support before and on the polling day.
Whether or not these parties will hit the campaign trail in a big way just as their right-wing competitors have done will become clear over the coming days. They will be desperate to do so. However, this time round, political parties are apparently hesitant to go for this option in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially those of the ANP and PPPP have been out of touch with the voters for nearly four years due to restricted movement.
They have already been foretold to exercise caution in conducting their election campaigns as the provincial police cannot ensure 100 percent security during their public meetings. Their inability to openly access the voters now may make it difficult for them not only to stem some of the unpopularity they may have earned during their incumbency, but also to prevent their more loyal vote-bank being eroded. In the previous elections, the mainstream political parties have always been unable to get overwhelming triumph with support of grassroots their workers and supporters, but this time, the workers have major task to lead to front for carrying party mission to general masses as they can play an important role in spearheading their respective party's pre-poll campaign, avoiding risks to the party leaders and supporters.
The Pashtun nationalist ANP party has its main base in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and also enjoys sizeable support in Karachi, poses great challenges for spreading their mission due to several attacks on leadership.
Though, all mainstream political parties have fielded potential candidates in many Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts in their apparent strategy to win the elections, this has not diminished the die-hard party workers' significance in making things happen even for their wealthy poll contenders.
Political experts said that the local people are eager to take part in the upcoming general election. Due to militancy and poor law and order situation, the political parties are confronting some challenges in Fata. However, religious parties have more sympathies as compared to other parties.
The ANP party, which led the outgoing administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been the worst hit. In October 2008, the party's chief, Asfandyar Wali, narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack near his residence in Charsadda. Since then, the party's top leaders have limited their movements and have avoided public exposure.
We can not deter from militants' threats, and would fully participate in the elections, said Malik Mustafa, said ANP's secretary information. He said his party is poses great potential threats from extremist forces amid poor law and order and security arrangements.
It was reported that the ANP had received threat from defunct organisations via secrete pamphlets and mobile texts messages, calling for abandon it electioneering race or face dire consequence. Brushing aside such speculations against the ANP's, the party information secretary blamed a group was emerged backed by certain political parties to terrorise us through such weaken tactics.
According to media reports that more than 700 ANP activists have been killed by snipers or suicide bombers during the last four years, including a top party leader, former KP senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour. In recent weeks, low-intensity bombs have gone off at several local ANP election meetings, reducing its ability to conduct an open campaign.
Officials of law enforcement agencies informed that more than 6,400 polling stations have been declared sensitive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including 1,056 worst from the security point of view.
The KP interim government called All Parties Conference, headed by former justice Tariq Pervez, had decided to provide five private security guards to each candidate of all mainstream political parties. Under the new security plan, the political parties asked to avoid holding big electioneering gathering and restraint upto small corner meetings in respective constituencies. More than 50,000 police forces backed by personnel of paramilitary would be deployed at sensitive polling stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The recently report published by Democracy Reporting International's (DRI's) on Federally Administrated Tribal region, called for additional security for voters, candidates and polling staff and special measures for women voters to ensure credible, participatory elections in Fata. The report Electoral Conditions in Fata further demanded for reserving parliamentary seats for women and measures to increase the registration of women voters.
The report said it was noted that barriers to voter registration present significant problems for women, who represent just over a third of Fata's 1.7 million registered voters, and for people living in tribal areas, who face additional verification requirements to obtain the CNICs.
In addition to increase security measures for women voters, other immediate improvements called for in the report include voter education by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), more state radio stations, and need for civil society to emphasise voters' rights and choices; a clear permission system for election observations and accreditation, with full support to observation activities; and special polling arrangements by the ECP for internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The report further called for extending the jurisdiction of superior courts to tribal areas to protect basic human rights denied under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), including freedom of assembly, association and expression. The report calls for the same election laws in Fata as the rest of country and amendment in Delimitation of the Constituencies Act 1974 to ensure that constituencies in Fata are more equally divided.
However, the essence of democracy is in holding a free and fair election. This fundamental requirement cannot be ensured without providing a level-playing field to all the political parties in the run up to the elections day.
Candidates and supporters of Awami National Party and Pakistan People's Party are exposed to some real threats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere at the hands of militants as was expected. The two parties are disadvantageously positioned as they do not have a carefree freedom to conduct canvassing at a time when, among all the political forces in the country, they need it the most based on their unimpressive stint in power for five years.
The threats to the current electoral process, particularly, the liberal political forces have not come as a surprise. The risks were imminent and anticipated since long. What is ironic is the fact that political parties, particularly the most threatened ones, did not do much and evolve strategies in advance for carrying out electioneering without yielding to miscreants' threats under the existing difficult situation.
ANP and PPP have got quite a few options to carry out their election campaigns without exposing their supporters to the militants' attacks. There is a need to prefer innovation over traditional means of spreading party programs.
In place of holding general public meetings in major urban centres, political parties can utilise electronic and social media to their maximum advantage. In this respect, political talk shows aired in dozens by television news channels 24/7 provide a free of cost opportunity to the parties to put their message across through airwaves to their electorates. Some political parties have already made best use of such talk shows, satisfying their appetite for making speeches at public meetings.
Political parties with sufficient funds at their disposal can also buy airtime on major television network to take their message to the masses instead of holding public meetings. Similarly, they can make campaign ads to spread their message without exposing their electorates to the dangers posed by militants' brutal and cruel attacks. They can create acceptance for their vibrant political ideas by making use of the social media as well. Some parties have already been using Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, emails and other similar options to conduct their pre-poll campaigns.
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