Pakistani general election, 1990

Pakistan General Elections, 1990
Pakistan
October 24, 1990

Turnout 45.5%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Nawaz Sharif Benazir Bhutto
Party IDA PPP
Leader since 1988 1982
Leader's seat Lahore Larkana
Last election 55, 30.2% 94, 38.5%
Seats before 55 94
Seats after 111 44
Seat change Increase56 Decrease 50
Popular vote 7,908,513 7,795,218
Percentage 37.4% 36.8%
Swing Increase7.2% Decrease 1.7%

Prime minister before election

Benazir Bhutto
PPP

Elected Prime minister

Nawaz Sharif
IDA

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The Pakistan General elections, 1990 took place on 24 October 1990 to elect 217 MPs to the Pakistan Parliament, and resulted in surprise victory of Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA), a massive conservative front led under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif. The IDA compete for the Prime minister secretariat and initially campaign on privatization and national conservative polices, meanwhile the MQM, a liberal front, led under Altaf Hussain tightened its support in Sindh Province. The result was a victory for Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, which won 106 of the 207 seats. Voter turnout was 45.5%. On October 19, 2012 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled on the 'Asghar Khan Petition' – a petition by Retd. Air Marshall Asghar Khan, heading up the Tehreek-i-Insaaf Party, requesting the court to probe into allegations that the 1990 elections were rigged. The court officially ruled that two Army Generals – Mirza Aslam Baig and Asad Durrani (Head of the ISI) – along with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan provided financial assistance to favoured parties. The motive, as was decreed by the SC, was to deliberately weaken the mandate of the Pakistan Peoples Party. It was believed that the PPP, led by Benazir Bhutto, was a liability to the nation.[1][2]

Background

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by Benazir Bhutto won a plurality of seats in the 1988 election and Bhutto became Prime Minister. However by 1990 there was discontent over rising lawlessness, allegations of corruption and the failure of the government to fulfill the promises it had made during the 1988 campaign.[3]

Parties

The PPP ran in the election in a coalition with 3 smaller parties as the People's Democratic Alliance.[4]

Campaign

By the start of the campaign reports suggested that Bhutto and the PDA were in a stronger position as the caretaker government failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove any charges against her.[5]

At the end of the campaign Bhutto led hundreds of thousands of supporters in a procession in Lahore, while Sharif held a rally for about ten thousand nearby.[6]

Results

The outgoing party, the PPP/PDA, lost the elections. IJI won the popular vote by a very narrow margin of only around 100,000 votes, but the narrow victory in the popular vote translated into 106 seats for IJI against the PDA's 44 seats. The popular argument regarding PDA's huge loss of seats is that the PDA's vote, despite being almost equal to that of IJI, was much more spread out whereas IJI's vote bank was more concentrated. This resulted in PDA candidates losing in IJI won seats by narrow margins.

Parties Votes % Seats +/-
Islami Jamhoori Ittehad7,908,51337.4106+50
People's Democratic Alliance7,795,21836.844New
Haq Parast1,172,5255.515New
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam622,2142.96-1
Awami National Party356,1601.76+4
Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (Noorani)310,9531.53New
Pakistan Awami Tehrik237,4921.10New
Jamhoori Wattan Party129,4310.62New
Pakistan National Party127,2870.62+2
Pakhtun-khwa Milli Awami Party73,6350.31New
Sindh National Front51,9900.20New
Pakistan Democratic Party51,6450.200
Balochistan National Movement51,2970.20New
Sindh National Alliance (Hamid Jatioi)31,1250.10New
13 other parties64,4700.30-
Independents2,179,95610.322-18
Invalid/blank votes231,568---
Total21,395,4791002070
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

  1. Desk, Web (2012-10-19). "Asghar Khan case short order: Full text". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
  2. Nohlen, D, Grotz, F & Hartmann, C (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p678 ISBN 0-19-924958-X
  3. Crossette, Barbara (1990-05-06). "Crime Weakens Support for Bhutto, Even in Her Traditional Power Base". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
  4. Crossette, Barbara (1990-09-26). "Karachi Journal; With the Chips Down, Bhutto's Ace Is Her Father". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
  5. Crossette, Barbara (1990-09-21). "Bhutto Gaining as Charges Remain Unproved". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
  6. "World". The Seattle Times. 1990-10-23. Retrieved 2008-11-29.