The outcome of the October 30 by-election on NA-45, Kurram district, has provided a timely space for homework for political parties, particularly so for the component parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), as to how to mobilize masses to their electoral agendas and improve on the poorly low turnout in polls before marching into the general elections year.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan’s decision to contest himself the by-polls on all constituencies of the National Assembly, though, proved successful, but it left the party’s future candidates at much disadvantage as they could not test their electoral mettle ahead of the next general elections.
Imran Khan’s winning spree on the electoral front has become significantly worrisome for the PDM conglomerate as the PTI chief defeated PDM-backed candidates in their strongholds on four National Assembly seats. Earlier, Mr Khan had won the by-polls in Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda.
Indeed, the result of the by-polls will determine the future of all political parties who had joined hands the banner of PDM to defeat PTI. More importantly, the results of recent by-polls will shape national politics as Imran Khan has launched a protest march from Lahore to demand early elections in the country.
Political observers are of the opinion that the result of the by-elections will play a critical role in determining the outcome of next general elections. The by-poll results have given a fresh impetus to the PTI to stabilize its electoral bandwagon, because the strategy it adopted for the by-polls might not yield results to its advantage as in general elections each and every candidate has to personally carry on a painstaking campaign to reach out to voters in their respective constituencies.
Imran Khan’s decision to contest on all seats himself is seen no more than a political stunt aimed at defeating PDM candidates, but analysts say any such decision was doomed to fail as such tactics would not bring any political success to the party.
The PTI chief’s move is considered a zero-sum game, which is aimed at increasing pressure on the government and the election commission for holding early elections in the country, as the winning candidate has to, as required by the law, surrender all seats except only one. However, PTI seems to be sticking to its snap poll agenda and its 100 legislators had tendered en masse resignations from the lower house of the parliament to pave way for early elections following the ouster of its government.
Imran Khan has already indicated that he has no intension to actually go to the parliament and take up his seat there to represent his voters, and this point would be exploited by the government-allied parties to the disadvantage of PTI candidates. And, it is clear that this strategy is not going to work in the general elections.
