Elections in Pakistan are a tense affair. Nearly every time elections have been held in the past, parties hurled accusations of rigging and misconduct at each other, and violence erupted across the country. Until now, an average Pakistani had to rely on the mainstream media to gather first-hand news and form their opinion. But with the rise of social media things have changed. There is an increasingly informed, tech-savvy populace who are using Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to this audience, a number of scandals have been uncovered and highlighted recently in the national media.
The upcoming general elections are of paramount importance to the history of Pakistan. This is the first time that a democratically elected government, free from the shackles of military rule or dictatorship, has transitioned power to another. This is also the first time that the most democratic of mediums, i.e. digital and social media, are being employed to communicate, collaborate, monitor and report on the elections.
Pak Votes is an initiative that aims to channelize the voice of the common man through citizen journalism, in order to generate an alternate narrative of the story of the 2013 elections by promoting citizen inclusion, ensuring openness and providing timely and reliable information by using social media tools and technologies. This will increase ownership of the people who are the intended beneficiaries of a democratic system.
An important aspect of Pak Votes is election violence reporting from information-dark districts of Pakistan. For this purpose, the pilot project has trained over 40 field monitors from the country’s 10 most violence prone districts in citizen journalism and digital media skills. Most of these districts get very little airtime in the mainstream media, due to which, violations of ECP Code of Conduct and electoral violence go unnoticed, and therefore, unpunished.
However, this may change this time. The 40 field monitors trained by Pak Votes are equipped with high-end smart phones and fitted with social media tools. These monitors have gone back to their respective districts after the training and are providing real-time information about the election campaigns in their areas. When they see any ECP Code-of-Conduct violations, they snap a photo or record a video. This information is then verified by the Pak Votes team and is posted online to different social media accounts and the Pak Votes websites. In this way, Pak Votes is mapping violence, and other minor political issues, across these ten districts in real-time. In addition to this, Pak Votes has developed and maintains mechanisms through which citizens, other than the Pak Votes field monitors, can report incidents of electoral violence or violations of ECP Code-of-Conduct in their districts and constituencies.
A team of dedicated professionals from all walks of life have come together to coordinate these efforts and build a repository of invaluable data through state-of-the-art mapping techniques and the use of modern communications technologies such as Pring and uShahidi. Pak Votes social media monitors will also be collating election related reports from news outlets, independent observers, partner organizations such as FAFEN, and other key actors, to ensure that these elections are the most widely covered and well-documented in Pakistan’s history.
The importance of democracy, sometimes lost in political rhetoric cannot be stressed enough in times like these. But there is more to the democratic process than casting the ballot and electing a roomful of people to run things. Democracy at its core promotes inclusion, equality and the right to make informed choices, in an environment free from influence. It is in this vein that Pak Votes is providing citizens of this country with a platform to exercise their democratic rights of being heard and being informed.
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