The outcome of the most expensive general elections-2008 indicates that the campaign spending by candidates may have brought some more people out to vote but did not make any worthwhile impact on the choice of candidates.

Perhaps, the electorate was much more influenced by a year-long great debate on national issues that sparked a chain of unsettling events.

The turnout had improved by solid four per cent from 41 per cent in 2002 to 45 per cent in 2008, according to data provided on the website of the Election Commission of Pakistan. This was despite security concerns and categorical warnings to their staff by some multinationals to stay indoors on the following day as the risk was said to be too high. Observers found turnout numbers a bit exaggerated particularly in certain areas in Karachi and Balochistan in general.

The Election-2008 cost is reckoned at a whooping Rs200 billion, each vote carrying a price tag of about Rs5200. The number has been worked out by dividing the number of voters with the total cost.

Depending on the projections, the campaign spending was not evenly distributed across the country and amongst contesting parties. It was estimated highest in Punjab and observed to be comparatively lowest in Balochistan. PMLQ is said to have spent by far the most. PPP spent less than PML-N in Punjab but its’ election expenditure in other provinces, particularly in Sindh was relatively higher.

But the rate of participation cannot be explained by spending alone. Host of other factors such as accessibility of polling stations, political awareness, law and order situation, etc. may be responsible for a certain trend in an area. However, the linkage between the quantum of spending and participation level cannot be brushed aside.

The fact that highest number of people participated in the elections in Punjab and Islamabad reflect that participation ratio is sensitive to the volume of campaign spending made. In Islamabad every other person voted pulling the rate of turnout to 50 per cent much above the national average of 44 per cent.

The participation rate was highest at 49 per cent in Punjab where the political parties were most active in terms of spending. In Sindh that trailed behind Punjab in election expenditure, the participation rate was second highest at 46 per cent. The province where the campaigning was lacklustre, the participation was lowest at 33 per cent. In NWFP where the law and order situation was worst as quite a few of election rallies of different contesting parties were targeted fared better than Balochistan with 34 per cent of registered voters of the province casting their votes.

The voters cannot be bought. When it comes to choosing their representatives, they have their own set of criterion to evaluate candidates. Given a chance, they exercise their right to vote based on their independent preferences.

That explains why the political party that started its campaign much ahead of other contestants and spent most lost in elections. PML (Q) conducted the most prolonged and expensive campaign compared to other mainstream parties, bagged least seats among the mainstream political parties.

The performance of the PPP and the PMLN seems to be linked more to their traditional vote bank and less to the amount of money spent in the electioneering. The absence of a direct relationship between spending and winning was further confirmed by the results of elections in Karachi. A moderate spending by MQM did not affect their vote bank.

Business leaders contacted over phone were cautiously optimistic about the future emerging after the elections. They were not too worried about the high cost of the election exercise.

“No cost is excessive if investment is being made in improving the process”, Zubyr Soomro, President Overseas Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Dawn over telephone from Jacobabad.

“The democracy is priceless, no cost is too high to stop nations from aspiring for it which is the best known system of governance under which conflicting interests can resolve or reconcile without causing major disruptions”, said another seasoned leader.

“Having said that there is a lot that can be learned from democratic government to improve the process of election to make it more efficient and transparent both politically and financially”, he added.

“The pattern of spending by the contesting political parties has not affected the outcome of the election in Pakistan or PMLQ wouldn’t have lost despite exorbitant campaign expenditure”, Zubair Motiwala a business leader from Karachi said.