Local Government Elections in the Province of Sindh, 15 January 2023

Floods, July–August 2022  

Abnormally heavy monsoon rain caused devastating floods to surge across Pakistan from mid-June 2022, overflowing riverbanks. The Government of Pakistan officially declared a national emergency on 25 August 2022 (IFRC 2022). By late August nearly a million homes were damaged and over 1,000 people had lost their lives, with around 33 million affected in total –  close to 500,000 of these living in relief camps (Ramzy 2022). By this point  over 700,000 livestock had been lost, and more than 3,000km of roads and 149 bridges damaged (Bearak et al. 2022). The floods impacted already vulnerable and deprived (highly food insecure) districts which were still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic (IFRC 2022).  

Pakistan has been ranked among the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Rains in 2022 were 87 per cent heavier than the average downpour and were worsened by the effects of climate change. Government coordination challenges, combined with inadequate infrastructure, left major cities particularly vulnerable to damage (ur-Rehman et al. 2022). Pakistan had also experienced record-breaking, drought-intensifying heat in preceding months, which scientists concluded was 30 times more likely to occur because of human-induced global warming; the oscillation between extreme drought and extreme rainfall can be particularly damaging, especially to already vulnerable communities (Bearak et al. 2022).  

Impact on the electoral process 

The first phase of local government elections was held in 14 districts of Sindh on 10 June. The second phase was scheduled to be held in the provinces Karachi and Hyderabad divisions on 24 July 2022. Due to the extensive and deadly flooding, the administration and law enforcement machinery of the province, as well as other departments such as education and health, were engaged in rescue and relief operations.  

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) therefore decided to postpone the election until the ‘normalization of situation in public interest’ (ECP 2022). Polling eventually took place on 15 January 2023 (Sadozai 2023), having been postponed three times due to floods and later because security personnel were unavailable to carry out election duties (FAFEN 2023). In total, the delay lasted for 177 days. 

Compounding staffing, transport and logistics challenges, since 2018 the ECP had ordered that only women polling agents could work at female polling stations across the country The floods also paralyzed communication infrastructure and caused housing crisis, hampering electoral communication and voter participation (Khan 2022; PTI 2018; (ECP 2022). Many voters lost their Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) following the floods – or faced additional delays in renewing them. These cards are mandatory for casting a vote (Menom 2023). 

Mobile registration facilities were provided by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to assist in replacing the lost CNICs However, as of December 2022 the service was discontinued before many (especially women and elderly) had been reached. Similarly, there were concerns about whether severely damaged schools would be repaired in time to function as polling stations as planned (Menom 2023). 

Turnout rates varied by division but were unusually low for the second phase of voting. Hyderabad’s was slightly over 40 per cent, down from 58 per cent in the previous local government election; Karachi’s was under 20 per cent, down from 36 per cent (FAFEN 2023). Factors contributing to the low voter turnout rates were thought to include uncertainty as to when and whether the elections were taking place (News 360 2023) and a boycott of the election by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQMP) over ECP’s refusal to further delay the polling (FAFEN 2023).