THE caretaker prime minister recently asserted that the nation has “accepted” the election results and that we must, therefore, “move on”. With all due respect, this seems like an overly optimistic take on a terribly messy situation.

As is evident from the slew of petitions being filed against the results, very few seem interested in ‘moving on’. In fact, the results are so unacceptable to certain stakeholders that, in some instances, political rivals are setting aside their differences to challenge them as one.

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Similarly, the PM’s dismissal of concerns over tampered results, based on the simplistic assertion that people “believe that rigging was committed because the mobile service was suspended and results were delayed by 36 hours”, is a fallacious framing of a highly serious matter. The rigging accusations have much more to do with the suspicious conduct of many returning officers, which the PM conveniently glossed over in his eagerness to prove critics wrong.

Whether or not he feels it to be his “moral duty”, the PM should not be defending the ECP and its decidedly poor management of the election exercise. Nor does it seem appropriate for him to be summarily dismissing the concerns over election rigging, especially when the complaints are being taken to election tribunals and courts.

It also seems irresponsible of him to blame political parties for “failing to enact effective legislation” as the reason why the polls became controversial, instead of letting them take the matter up with the ECP. It is also strange that Mr Kakar is still having trouble deciding what ‘free and fair’ means.

The night before the election, he told a foreign interviewer that he “could not guarantee” free and fair polls because the idea was “very subjective”. Now, he is insisting that the “process” was free and fair and that anyone who disagrees with this assessment is wrong.

Such unwarranted self-assurance and disregard for consequence would perhaps be more easily overlooked in a popularly elected leader secure in their office.

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However, they seem more than a little jarring when coming from an individual entrusted with the office to do just one job. The nation will, indeed, move on in good time. The political system will work through its present challenges and evolve.

However, the people will not be gas-lit into accepting less than what they deserve. The ECP will be held accountable for its failure to organise a smooth transfer of power from one elected government to the next.

It is only its disastrous mismanagement of the election process that is to blame for the growing controversy over rigging, not the media, which simply fulfilled its responsibility by acting as a check on the counting process. The government should accept this simple fact and move on.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2024