Re: Election commission postpones election
People not happy with polls delay
‘Polls should have been held on time’
Thursday, January 03, 2008
By Xari Jalil
Karachi
In the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the countrywide mayhem that was triggered soon after, questions about whether the elections would be postponed loomed large in everyone’s minds.
It became an even more important issue after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) confirmed that they would participate in the polls, while the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to postpone the elections to February 18 compounded the confusion. With regards to postponing the polls, the opinion of the public at large is apparently very different from that of the establishment.
Amjad Khan, a rickshaw driver shook his head sadly when he first heard of the decision. “This is an unfortunate incident, it shows that the government is scared that the People’s Party will sweep the elections,” he says.
“When the affected party itself has said that it has the courage and strength even at this moment to fight these polls, then why is the government saying that they should wait?” questions 20-year-old Hamid Ali, a student of a college.
The people who had been deeply disillusioned before Benazir’s murder, are now angry and mobilized. They say they are moved by the loss of the party, even though any were not siding with any party as such.
“It is pathetic to see how the government is being scared of the PPP,” says Nauman Ahmed. “Its only clear that they know that the party will win, but by delaying the polls, they are only causing people to become even angrier and take to the opposition parties.”
“The establishment is giving the reason of ballot papers being burnt, but I ask the government, where was the writ of the government when the arson was taking place? With this kind of inefficiency, I say the sooner the elections the better so at least the people can choose someone who can bring in more law and order,” says Ahmed Kazim.
“If they (government) are finding it hard to hold elections, only because of the ballot papers being burnt, then it is advisable to them to hold these elections in other areas first, and delay them only in those areas till they fix the problem,” says Mohammad Yousuf, a taxi driver.
A large number of people have showed their distress at the decision to postpone the elections, but some still remain neutral and passive, and display themselves as being apolitical.
“I have no interest in anything happening in this country,” says Shoaib Akhtar. “I hardly read the newspaper unless there’s something important happening around.”
“I know that the elections will be rigged, everyone knows that. Whoever is really the winner, will never be proclaimed.
The establishment will remain, so why even bother about elections?” says a student of the Urdu Science College who asked not to be named.
“I think that the decision to postpone elections till after Moharram was a good idea, because there would have been a lot of disturbance and problems. In the end the common man suffers,” says Ayesha Shah. “And in the end, the people will only vote for who they want, whether the polls are postponed or whether they are held on schedule.”
Nevertheless, the public view does not seem to matter to the establishment at the moment. The decision is made and the affected party is still willing to fight instead of boycotting. Only the results will be held in tense anticipation.