ISLAMABAD, July 18: All eyes are on Multan for the by-election being held on Thursday for the seat vacated by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The main candidate is the former prime minister’s son Abdul Qadir Gilani who is contesting on PPP ticket. Besides Mr Gilani, the candidates are: Shaukat Hayat Khan Bosan, who enjoys the informal support of both Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, Abdul Mateen Qureshi, Dr Aleem Chaudhry, Mehr Ghulam Shabbir Sial, Shehla Shaheen Advocate, Muhammad Husnain Khan Bosan, Muhammad Amil Yousuf Jutt, Muhammad Abbas and Nawaz Muhammad Iqbal Khan.

A coalition of NGOs working for free and fair elections announced on Tuesday that it would go ahead with its plan to mobilise its observers to monitor the election despite the Election Commission’s refusal to issue accreditation cards to them.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) said the observers would monitor the electoral processes outside polling stations.

It is the first time since Fafen’s inception six years ago that the EC has refused to allow it to observe an election.

Fafen claims that the EC decision against issuing accreditation cards came after it raised serious issues with the electoral rolls being finalised for the coming general elections. It urged the EC to follow the Supreme Court’s directive that voter lists should be finalised after door-to-door verification.

According to Fafen, the preliminary electoral rolls, 2012, had more than 11 per cent voters who were not verified on addresses listed on the rolls. Alarmingly, there are around 20 million people aged 18 years and above and not registered as voters.

But an official of the Election Commission told Dawn that the Fafen observers could not get accreditation cards because of the busy schedule of acting chief election commissioner Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, who is currently in Multan to oversee arrangements for the by-poll.

Fafen says that the EC’s refusal to allow observation of voting and counting processes in the by-election was a serious blow to electoral transparency. Concluding its pre-election assessment mission in NA-151 a day before polling, Pildat’s Citizens Group on Electoral Process (CGEP) has said that the new directive of the EC relating to curtailing election spending has been only partially enforced in the by-election. Perhaps the biggest issue is the lack of clarity of the EC staff on the ground on what constitutes election expenses.

“From newspaper reports, advertisements and witnessing jalsas of the candidates, it appears that the candidates have spent much more than the expense limit, that the EC must take action against,” recommended the group.

Although the EC’s monitoring arrangements are praiseworthy in terms of providing transport to voters in 29 out of 245 polling stations in NA-151 where distance to polling station is more than 2 kilometres, CGEP shared its apprehensiveness in the commission’s ability to provide transport to all voters of different camps in a non-partisan manner.

The group witnessed violation of the EC code in banners, hoardings and wall-chalking across the NA-151 constituency.

During its two-day fact finding mission to Multan, the group held meetings with Mr Abdul Qadir Gilani and Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Mr Sikandar Hayat Bosan, commissioner and DCO of Multan, district returning officer and returning officer and the EC-appointed monitoring teams.

Members of the group included Lt. Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider, former interior minister and governor of Sindh; Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal, senior journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, Executive Director of Pildat Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Joint Director Aasiya Riaz and Projects Manager Mamoon Bilal.