Pakistan's election commission faces accusation of changing voting map in ex-PM Nawaz Sharif's favour

Pakistan's election commission is facing accusations of going through a controversial exercise for redrawing a voting map which favours the comeback of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to power. The commission faced accusations amid allegations of pre-polling rigging and growing doubt over the fairness in the general elections ahead.

The procedure to amend constituency borders, which is known as delimitation, follows on from a recently held census, which was marred by many controversies.

Across the country, nearly 1,300 objections have been raised over the changes proposed by the election commission regarding the constituencies, which includes the merging of the Balochistan districts of Sibi and Harnai into one constituency, although they are 400 km apart with stark climate, culture and demographic differences and no road connections.  

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As per reports, the election date was also delayed from November to February next year on the pretext of awaited census results, although the opposition alleged that the elections were delayed so that three-time former prime minister Sharif would get more time to return from exile in the United Kingdom and make preparations to run again.

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It is being said that Sharif is the favoured candidate of Pakistan’s military, which has been the kingmaker in general elections. The allegations of favourable treatment have been denied by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The delimitation committee was accused of favouritism and increasing doubts over free and fair polls in more than 80 per cent of petitions.  The committee will announce the final decision on November 30.

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Serious objections have been raised by the monitoring group Free and Fair Election Network over the preliminary delimitations and they stated that the regulations on voter numbers were not confirmed by more than one-fifth of the proposed constituencies 

Deenar Domki, who is a politician from Balochistan, objected to the merger of the Harnai and Sibi districts and stated that they are altering the constituency borders to favour former minister Noor Muhammad Dumar, who recently joined Sharif’s PML-N party. He stated Dumar was the “main beneficiary of this unjust demarcation”, adding that some voters will be required to cross five districts so as to vote or take part in local campaigning.

(With inputs from agencies)