Citizens’ Observation for Electoral Transparency

More than 16,000 citizen observers were the true expression of the will of Pakistani people to protect the integrity of elections and strengthen democracy on July 25, 2018 when the country held its 11th General Election (GE) in a politically fragmented environment. Supported by USAID’s Citizens’ Voice Project (CVP), these remarkable men and women fanned out in all electoral constituencies of the country, braving security odds, scorching temperatures, and rugged terrains in an unprecedented effort to provide objective and independent information about the quality of the electoral process to the Pakistani citizens.

This tremendous observation effort was carried out under the tutelage of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a coalition of more than 50 domestic civil society organizations working to foster democratization in Pakistan. FAFEN deployed 16,429 trained, non-partisan citizen observers to observe voting and counting processes at 85 % (or 72,089) of all polling stations in 272 National Assembly constituencies – an unparalleled effort to deter electoral fraud and generate independent information on the quality of election in a country where electoral outcomes have traditionally remained politically contentious, raising public distrust and fomenting instability. The observation also enabled a better understanding of citizens of otherwise complex electoral processes and procedures and help them form independent opinions about the electoral outcomes as the country witnessed the second consecutive peaceful democratic transition of power.

GE 2018 was also unique as it was the first time a legal provision protected the rights of domestic and international observers to have access to polling stations, counting of votes, and consolidation of election results – a point of advocacy that FAFEN held since General Elections in 2008. The electoral reforms enacted in 2017 translated into a more responsive Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the constitutional body that is mandated to conduct elections in Pakistan, which unlike previous elections, efficiently processed accreditation of FAFEN observers – a reflection of the will of the election management body to meet the ever-growing demands of transparency in this age of new media.

CVP assisted FAFEN in developing a robust multi-phase observation methodology to cover all phases of elections – pre-election, election-day, and post-election. The long-term observation started in January 2018, six months prior to the Election-day, to cover all critical electoral areas such as the candidate nominations, election arrangements, role of government, and its institutions, etc. As many as 394 Long-Term Observers (LTOs) were recruited, trained, and deployed. These long-term and election-day observers recorded around 6 million observations on standardized checklists based on Pakistani election laws, rules, and procedures as well as international best practices.

The challenge was to report the observation findings promptly, to provide the ECP adequate time to remedy any irregularity reported by the observers. CVP facilitated the development of an Election Information Management System (EIMS) to report all election-related data and information in an efficacious and prompt manner. Comprising of a web-based portal and mobile application, this innovative, indigenously designed system improved data management, increase transparency, and ensured prompt dissemination to citizens and other stakeholders. At least 5.82 million observation recorded by observers and transmitted to FAFEN’s Secretariat in Islamabad were swiftly analyzed for their quick dissemination to citizens, media, and other relevant stakeholders. The EIMS enabled the public release of an exhaustive preliminary report that was based on observations received from 37,001 polling stations on election-day within 48 hours after the close of polls.

It was FAFEN’s observers who raised alarm bells from 80 neighborhoods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab, and Sindh where women were being barred from participating in the election process as well as voting. Timely reporting by FAFEN prompted ECP to take immediate actions in these areas to ensure that the women were allowed to vote.  A small step forward but the GE 2018 did not have any incident of 0% percent turnout at any female polling stations unlike 2013 when there were 595 polling stations and 564 in 2008 where no women turned out to vote. This was one of several meaningful remedial actions that ECP had initiated on FAFEN’s reporting, establishing the efficacy of the coordination mechanism that was specially setup by the ECP for FAFEN to share its observation findings and reports.

FAFEN’s election-day observation was particularly significant in terms of contributing to political stability after most political parties raised concerns at the result management process, alleging that the election outcomes were rigged. The pre-election and election-day reports did not only quantify the scale of irregularities but also indicated at their material effect on the election outcome, shifting the focus of divisive political discourse from generalized statements on the quality of election to more technical areas that needed greater scrutiny.

As many as 145 National and Provincial Assembly constituencies where margin of victory was less than the rejected votes, absence of any pattern indicating that a single political party was the beneficiary of process irregularities, statistically improbable voting patterns at 5,921 polling booths in 257 constituencies, exclusion of 1.69 million ballots from the count as they did not fulfil the legal criteria, problematic legal provisions concerning vote consolidation, and recount processes, etc. that caught the attention of media and political parties alike, reinforcing the need of further improvements in the legal framework.

That FAFEN’s findings were equally quoted by all major political parties whether winning or losing was the recognition of the independence and credibility of the observation effort. Unlike the past, the ECP did not only acknowledge FAFEN’s findings and recommendations through a press statement but also put them up on its website, promising action to address the issues highlighted by the network.

With the consolidation of democracy in Pakistan as the country has witnessed successive democratic regimes in the past decade, fair and transparent elections are integral for furthering development, stability, and prosperity. Election observers such as the ones deployed in GE 2018 in Pakistan play an important role in promoting the democratic principles and practices by advancing public confidence in elections. FAFEN election observation remained instrumental by contributing to improvements in future elections in the shape of electoral reforms, fostering peace, stability, and democratic processes in Pakistan.