ISLAMABAD: As much as 33.5 billion rupees were incurred on the controversial February 8 general elections that saw widespread allegations of unprecedented rigging in the country, it emerged on Monday.
The expenditure for 2018 general elections exceeded Rs28 billion, according to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The poll entity said it tried to “reduce the expenses as much as possible but even then Rs33.5 billion were incurred on general elections 2024.”
General elections: Ministry of Finance releases Rs17.4bn to ECP
The ECP, in a statement, denied the statement of Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan that Rs14.5 billion were incurred on the general elections 2024—and that the ECP sought a “far greater” electoral budget from the then government in a bid to delay the general elections.
It is worth mentioning here that following the conduct of February 8 general polls, the roles of the ECP in general, and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja in particular, remained under intense scrutiny by the public and political circles over their alleged role in rigging in the general elections.
On February 8 night soon after the ECP’s much-hyped Election Management System (EMS) broke down, the CEC had left the ECP headquarters on a ‘private’ visit without his official security and protocol, which fuelled speculations that the CEC met some “powerful” individuals against the backdrop of EMS breakdown, and that the election results became “more controversial” after this development.
Conspicuously, the candidates backed by PTI were leading the poll charts with heavy margins against their respective electoral rivals in different constituencies across the country before the EMS suddenly broke down.
Several hours later, when the EMS was restored, these candidates lost the polls, as per the ECP’s results.
The electoral entity linked the delay in election results to the unavailability of mobile and internet services. But it failed to explain the reasons behind the sudden collapse of the EMS.
Also, on February 8, CEC Raja had earlier told the media that the blockade of cellular and internet services would not affect results transmission through EMS.
In the early hours of February 9, the ECP issued a statement that the CEC directed the provincial election commissioners and returning officers (ROs) to issue the election results “within half-an-hour,” otherwise, strict action would be taken against them—which never happened.
The CEC denied that he directed the authorities to suspend the cellular and mobile internet coverage across the country on the pretext of security threats. These services were blocked countrywide in the early hours of February 8 and restored on the morning of February 9.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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