Pakistani democracy:
50.1% is a winner and rules, 49.9% is a looser and gets nothing.
Hon Batman,
Your question is genuine, but unfortunately this is exactly what happens. In the early days of democracy in Athens, only one black ball (No vote) more than white ball was needed to reject the issue or a candidate.
No voting system is perfect. In the US they have Electoral College and a candidate can get majority vote but still not get elected as president. This has happened 4 times in the US history. Last time it was in 2016 where Hillary Clinton polled 65.85 million votes versus 62.98 million votes for Donald Trump but Donald Trump won
In a ‘First past the post’ system, practiced in the UK, India & in Pakistan, this is exactly what happens. Winner takes all. Many European countries have Proportionate Representation. But in that case even parties with extreme views, let us say an extreme right wing party such as SSP wins 5% of the vote, that party will have 5% of the assembly seats and in case of hung parliament, can demand a can demand Wahhabi doctrine be declared as official creed of Pakistan as a price for their support; a greedy party such as PML-N may even accept this condition to cling on to power.
Regrettably in every election in my lifetime, losers never accept defeat and always cry ‘Dhaandly’. In this very case Yasmeen Rashid is planning to challenge the results on the bases on the alleged missing 29,000 votes.
Can one honestly believe that all 29,000 would cast their votes and all of the votes would have gone to PTI in the ward where PML-N had the majority of 39,000 in May 2013 elections?
Turn out in a by-election is normally low, in Pakistan even in general election turnout is seldom more than 50%. Even if it is 60%, it means only about 18,000 votes. There were 44 candidates and Yasmeen Rashid would need about 90% of the votes cast to overtake the 15,000 deficit. In reality at best the difference might have shrunk to 10,000 but no more.
In my humble opinion, once people have cast their votes, their verdict should be gracefully accepted. However this is my view which everyone is free to reject.
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