Mission of foreign observation Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) has officially published its report on the general elections of Pakistan, highlighting “conditions that seemed to limit fundamental political rights and impacted the ability of a party to play the elections quite a lot.”
“In addition, he observed a closure of cell services on the night of the elections, which reduced the transparency of the process and impacted the efficiency of receiving results,” a COG press release said on Tuesday.
The report had been subject to some controversy after media reports suggested that the Commonwealth had buried the report after finding that the elections were plagued with problems.
The COG recorded areas of improvement and provided recommendations to strengthen the independence of the country’s democratic institutions, according to the press release.
A “transmission letter”, written by the president of the COG, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and included in the report, pointed out the denial of the electoral symbol to the PTI, the consecutive convictions of the founder of the Imran Khan party, and the limitations of freedom of association and the assembly.
Then he said: “When you look isolated, some, although not all, of the arguments advanced by the key institutions in support of their actions seem justifiable. However, collectively, collectively, It could not go unnoticed that these decisions constantly limited the ability of a party to dispute the elections in a leveling playing field. “
The COG president wrote: “We observed with concern a series of factors in the pre -election period that significantly impacted the level of level play, the most crucial of the non -assignment of the bat symbol to PTI and the record of PTI candidates as independent.
“While for this decision had a basis in the law, the negative consequences of this decision seemed very disproportionate with the crime that this decision sought to address.”
The Supreme Court had revoked the symbol of the PTI bat only a few weeks before the elections for not holding their surveys within the party, which forced the party candidates to compete as independent candidates without a unified symbol.
Other “concern issues” observed by the COG included Imran’s convictions in three separated cases before the election. “There were also limitations in fundamental political rights, including freedom of association and the assembly. These limitations were felt more acutely by PTI and their supporters,” said the group.
He also pointed out “limitations in journalistic freedoms, even in relation to freedom of expression and a culture of impunity for perpetrators of violence against journalists, which may have led to self -censorship.”
Forms-45 ‘may have been altered’
The 161 pages report also mentioned the Forms-45 controversy that has been in the heart of the accusations of manipulation level by the PTI during those elections.
“In several constituencies, the group reviewed the documentation that suggested that form 45 may have been altered to change the total number of votes received by the candidates, and that these altered forms were used to compile the results tabulated in forms 47, which results in some candidates being illegally returned as chosen,” reads the COG report.
He said that the COG was informed that, in many cases, the Forms-45 presented to the officer returned (ro) differ from copies from the-45 forms “received at the voting station by agents of independent candidates and other agents of the parties.” The COG also “reviewed the documentation that seemed to show that a significant number of forms 46 had altered.”
Providing its evaluation of the coverage of media in English, the COG said that the main media “greatly followed the principles of fair and precise electoral reports.”
“However, some media sections covered some political candidates and parties more favorably than others, with independent candidates affiliated with PTI who received less positive coverage in the main national media.”
The report said PTV news “Lack of balance, with most of their coverage concentrated in PML-N and PPP, especially in the first,” while independent candidates affiliated with PTI did not receive so much coverage.
The COG said that “it was reported that the Issuers were not prevented from saying the name of Imran Khan, instead of being indicated that he referred only to the PTI chair.”
In addition, the group said that “some newspapers in English published obvious campaign messages of PML-N and its leader on February 7” despite the campaign period that ended the previous day.
The report also detailed COG evaluations on activities prior to the survey; the voting, counting and results process; the inclusion of women, young people, the transgender community and religious minorities; and the legal environment, including certain recent decisions and a letter from the judges that allege interference.
“The jurisprudential inconsistencies in two of the most significant and consequent cases in the pre -election period had serious impacts in terms of the level nature of the playing field,” said the COG, specifying the reversal of the SC of the vitality of life for politicians, and the electoral commission of the decision of Pakistan, later increased by the Apex Court, to retain the PTI’s bat.
Reduction in the Voting Registration Genus Gap
In its report, the COG also “praised the efforts of the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP) to guarantee inclusive elections.”
“He noticed the expansion of the ECP of his gender wing and social inclusion as an effort that is worth it, which contributed to a reduction in the Voting Registration Gente of 12 percent in 2013 to 7.7pc in the 2024 elections.
“The group also pointed out the establishment of the Genus Line of the ECP to inform the harassment and intimidation of elections. There was also an improvement in the participation of youth voters.”
The press release, citing the report, added that despite the challenges, the “potential to improve future surveys was encouraging.”
“The potential of Pakistan’s democracy is huge. Pakistan has vibrant and diverse means; women and young people are more committed than ever; and Pakistan’s CSO play a fundamental role in the democratic life of the country, continuously pressing for reform and improvement.”
The report proposed reforms to several aspects of the electoral process, including the legal framework and its interpretation, electoral administration and laws that affect political rights, women’s participation, pre -electoral campaigns and the role of the media, according to the press release.
The COG recorded areas of improvement and provided recommendations to strengthen the independence of the country’s democratic institutions, according to the press release.
In addition, he declared: “The group highlighted, among others, the conditions that seemed to limit fundamental political rights and impacted the ability of a party to play the elections quite a lot. In addition, it observed a closure of cellular services on the electoral night, which reduced the transparency of the process and impacted the efficiency of the recipient results.”
The report concluded that these developments may have “affected credibility, transparency and inclusion of the electoral process.”
Report ‘Delayed’
According to the Transmission Charter attached to the report, it was presented by the COG to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth on November 20, 2024. A press release issued together with the report did not explain the excessive delay in its publication.
In September, the PTI had asked COG to publish this report, claiming that it exposed “systemic rig, institutional bias and deliberate targeting of PTI and its founder, Imran Khan.”
However, in a statement issued on September 14, the COG said he was aware that a version of his report on the general Pakistan elections of 2024 circulated online, but did not comment on filtered documents as a policy issue.
“The Government and Electoral Commission of Pakistan have already received the report. The full report, as we had previously communicated, will be published at the end of this month, along with a series of COG reports currently in the publication pipe,” said the COG statement.
PTI’s demand occurred after a recent report from the independent media Drop site news He said that the COG had “buried its report” after finding that the general elections of February 8 were plagued with problems.
Although Pakistan’s report had not yet been officially published at that time, the media claimed to have obtained filtered copies from the report.
