LOCATED in southeast Balochistan, NA-266 (Nasirabad-cum-Jaffarabad) is predominantly a rural constituency with 409,644 registered voters. There are 53.90pc registered male voters and 46.10pc registered women voters.

In the 2013 general elections, the turnout in the constituency, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan, was much higher than in the previous election at 39.50pc, an increase of 16.10pc from the 2008 general election.

However, several electoral malpractices were observed at the many polling stations where ballot stuffing and stamping were common. Election officials, especially presiding officers at certain polling stations, were influenced to favour particular candidates. Fake CNICs were used to cast bogus votes as CNICs of many women didn`t have photographs which made fraud all the more easier.

The winning candidate secured 25.70pc of all the valid votes whereas the runner-up got 22.10pc votes a difference of almost 3pc. Surprisingly, however, the number of rejected votes which is the sole discretion of the returning officer is 25,562 (about 16pc of all registered votes). The constituency is the one where the number of rejected votesis the highestin Pakistan.

This has made the election results of the constituency questionable as the margin of victory is five times smaller than the number of rejected votes. The method of conducting elections and compiling results needs to be drastically reformed so that the existingloopholesin the currentelectoral system are plugged, and the results are not made controversial because of electoral inadequacies.

Saad Khosa Jaffarabad