According to the Daily Mail, the general election cost 42 billion Pakistani rupees.
Islamabad:
Despite assurances from Pakistan’s caretaker government, the credibility of the country’s most expensive general election has been called into question amid suspended cellular networks, restrictions on voter movement, terror attacks and curbs on media coverage, News International reported on Friday.
According to reports, the caretaker government has assured Pakistanis that network connectivity will not be affected during election day. However, just before voting began on Thursday, mobile internet services were “temporarily” shut down.
Eight minutes before the voting process begins, the interior ministry said mobile phone services will continue to be suspended across Pakistan as part of “security measures”, noting that this was “inevitable”.
According to the newspaper, the election cost 42 billion Pakistani rupees, making it the most expensive election in the country’s history. The amount was a 26 per cent increase over the expenditure for the 2018 elections, the report said, adding that the increase was due to security and other arrangements by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In addition, more than 128 million people were registered to vote, making it the largest election in the country’s history.
The sudden decision to suspend mobile internet services caused inconvenience to all stakeholders in the election – voters, political actors, polling agents, observers and journalists, the report said.
Media coverage of the polls has also been hampered, with reporters facing and complaining about obstacles in gathering information and disseminating post-poll results, News International reported.
The newspaper quoted a journalist in Karachi as saying that journalists face major problems in gathering information. “We later got some video, but [connectivity] Things will be easier there,” the newspaper quoted the reporter as saying.
“This impacted the ability of news organizations, journalists and election observers to report on this event,” he added.
Geo News Karachi-based correspondent Waqas Angaria said his plans to disseminate the results and provide live updates to channels were scuppered due to the outage.
Voting in Pakistan’s general election has ended amid allegations of fraud and the shutdown of cellular and internet services, Dawn newspaper reported on Thursday.
The voting process begins at 8 a.m. and continues until 5 p.m. Pakistan’s Election Commission earlier said exceptions would only be made for those already inside polling stations.
However, the vote was not considered free and fair, as there were numerous accusations of rigging and voting bans. In a major development, the federal interior ministry this morning suspended mobile phone and internet services across Pakistan to maintain law and order situation ahead of Thursday’s general elections.
Internet monitoring agency Netblocks also said that real-time data showed that “in addition to mobile network outages, Internet outages have also occurred in multiple areas of Pakistan,” Dawn reported.
The development drew harsh criticism from the major political parties. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has demanded immediate restoration of mobile phone services across the country.
Women voters in a village in NA-20 of Swabi district have been completely barred from voting, ARY News reported on Thursday.
Locals in Adina village in Swabi district allegedly banned women from exercising their right to vote. Election workers were reportedly present at polling stations but rarely saw female voters.
In a separate incident, at least two children were killed in an explosion near a polling station in Washbood Panjgur, ARY News reported.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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