Fact-check: PILDAT's election report misrepresented online
PILDAT’s assessment of 2024 general election ranks polls the least fair in comparison to last two elections, in 2018 and 2013, not in comparison to all previous electoral exercises
Updated Tuesday Mar 19 2024
In a recent report about the 2024 parliamentary election, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) has assessed these polls as the least fair, claim Facebook and X (Twitter) posts.
The claim is misleading. The February 8 election has been assessed as the lowest in fairness since 2013, not in comparison to all previous polls.
Claim
On March 7, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a graphic from a television channel which alleged: “The 2024 national election has recorded the lowest fairness score, says PILDAT.”
The post has been viewed over 72,000 times, liked nearly 10,000 times, to date.
Identical claims also took off here, here and here.
Fact
PILDAT, the Lahore-based independent think tank’s assessment of the 2024 general election ranks them as the least fair in comparison to the last two elections, in 2018 and 2013, not in comparison to all previous electoral exercises in the country.
PILDAT’s report, titled the "Assessment of the Quality of General Election 2024", was released on March 6. The report is also publicly available on the following link.
It clearly states that the 2024 polls had received a score of 49%, which was three points lower than the score of the 2018 and 2013 general elections, which were ranked 52% and 57% respectively in terms of quality.
The report is based on an independent analysis of the think tank, along with assessments shared by politicians, civil society, lawyers, activists, academics, retired bureaucrats, retired military officials and politically aware youngsters.
This was also corroborated by Ahmed Bilal Mehbob, the president of PILDAT, who told Geo Fact Check over the phone that claims circulating online were “misleading”.
“In fact the 2002 and 2008 [elections] scored less, compared to the 2024 election,” Mehboob said. As per the report, the 2002 polls scored 37% and the 2008 polls 40%.
With additional reporting by Muhammad Binyameen Iqbal.
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