Elections will be coming up in Pakistan, and with this talk about rigging, lets take a trip down memory lane and see which ones were rigged. IMO the two elections that were rigged extensively were:
Elections under Bhutto (that sealed his fate)
Elections where Nawaz and Co came into power for the 2nd time (by this time they had realized that even with a wee bit of political representation, Benazir was lethal)
And please, we’re talking about general elections, not the local baldiyaati intakhabat, or referundums (yes we all know they were flawed too)…
Elections where Nawaz and Co came into power for the 2nd time (by this time they had realized that even with a wee bit of political representation, Benazir was lethal)
And please, we're talking about general elections, not the local baldiyaati intakhabat, or referundums (yes we all know they were flawed too)...
Well EU observers will be making sure the elections are transperant but I am hoping ISI can fool them.:)
Its pretty obvious, the PPP will get the highest number of votes, but the PML[Q] will win the most seats, and this time the MMA will fail miserably, if it manages to stay under one platform by that time. ANP will make a strong comeback.
^^ thats what going to happen, if nothing drastic happens, meaning if any under table deal with PPP is done with Mushi, that will change scene of the outlook and most joins and tricks will be done to make PPP as winner or marginal winner with some support of smaller parties.
A joke going around lately is that since everyone had been whining about making the elections transparent; the govt and ECP listened, and apparently have produced new and transparent ballot boxes!
Wonder whether their use will also be transparent?
Hmm, I am surprised you are forgetting the more famous ones, the 1988 election when the spooks threw millions in targetted rigging (Hamid gul and others have talked very openly about it).
Obviously the most tragic one was the 1964 elections which were rigged so heavily against Madar-e-millat Fatima Jinnah.
Chaudhry Shujaat has spoken quite openly about how he lost his seat in 1993, and it was because the generals were not willing to allow Nawaz back in no matter what..
Obviously the most tragic one was the 1964 elections which were rigged so heavily against Madar-e-millat Fatima Jinnah.
Chaudhry Shujaat has spoken quite openly about how he lost his seat in 1993, and it was because the generals were not willing to allow Nawaz back in no matter what..
yar zakk, i dont think the 1988 ones were rigged (believe me u already know im not a ppp supporter), but BB won that election because at that time the ppl (atleast the majority, not overwhelming one) wanted her in power. Same goes in 1993, and chaudhry shujaat, zakk bhai since when did u start believing him, afterall hes a mushy stooge ;)
Oh and u mentioned the 1964 one, well that was before my time so i cant say for sure, but one thing I must admit, Ayub had support too, but Im sure not as overwhelming as it seemed with those results.
lol haris, whats this about transparent boxes? thats funny! do u remember those ugly old heavy boxes they used to use? u dont want those things falling on ur foot!
Public Sympathy is in favor of MMA. I would like to see Maulana Fazlur Rahman at the top- the guy is clean and has religious values. All the diesel kick back talks are crap and unproven. My next favs. would be Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain- he talks well, and is well connected.
Oh and u mentioned the 1964 one, well that was before my time so i cant say for sure, but one thing I must admit, Ayub had support too, but Im sure not as overwhelming as it seemed with those results.
lol haris, whats this about transparent boxes? thats funny! do u remember those ugly old heavy boxes they used to use? u dont want those things falling on ur foot!
The 1964 elections were rigged and Fatima Jinnah would have won otherwise.
The 1988 elections were rigged against PPP to reduce their winning marign.
The only Saaf and Shaffaf election in the history of Paksitan was in 1971.
The two worst ones were Zia and Mushy's refrendum.
No, it isn’t sir! Our country is going nowhere with this modernization. We would lose our culture, religion and Islamic values very soon… Gen. Zia tried hard with his policies to bring our country on the Islamic path but this Mushy boy is reversing everything Zia did for Pakistan. Amendment of Hudood ordinance is an example of how Mushy is undoing Zia’s good works A lot of Islamic scholars in Pakistan are claiming that Mushy is not a muslim.
According to the original schedule, the second general elections in the history of Pakistan, and the first after the dismemberment of the country, were to be held in the second half of 1977. However, on January 7, 1977, Bhutto announced that the elections would be held earlier. On January 10, Justice Sajjad Ahmad Jan, Chief Election Commissioner, announced the election schedule and declared January 19 and 22 as the last date for receipt of nominations for National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies, respectively. To many, the idea was not to give sufficient time to the opposition in order to make decisions and arrangements for the forthcoming elections. Election symbols were allocated to all the political parties. The total registered voters in the country were 30,899,052. Two hundred and fifty five Returning Officers were appointed for the National Assembly elections by the Election Commission. Immediately after the announcement, Bhutto started his election campaign. The first step he took was the allocation of tickets to his party men. Unlike the 1970 elections, when Pakistan Peoples Party mainly banked on socialistic slogans, this time Bhutto also relied on political heavyweights. A number of feudal lords and other influential persons were allocated party tickets. Bhutto himself held public meetings all over the country, and to get further support from the common man, he announced labor reforms on January 4, and a second set of land reforms on January 5. The attendance in the public meetings was amazing in all parts of the country, especially in interior Sindh and Punjab. The opposition blamed Bhutto for using Government machinery in running his election campaign. The biggest problem for Bhutto and his Pakistan Peoples Party was that nine important parties of the opposition had joined hands and formed an alliance, named as Pakistan National Alliance. P. N. A. decided to contest the elections under one election symbol “plough” and a green flag with nine stars as its ensign. Throughout their election campaign, instead of giving their own agenda, P. N. A. leadership mainly concentrated on echoing the alleged misdeeds of Bhutto’s Government, corruption, mismanagement of national wealth, heavy expenditures on administration and disastrous economic policies evidenced by inflation. The P. N. A. leaders also exploited the deteriorating law and order situation and misuse of law enforcing agencies against the political opponents. They claimed that the fundamental rights had been curtailed during Bhutto’s era. P. N. A. managed to exploit anti-Bhutto sentiments among a huge section of masses and thus their election campaign received an unexpectedly positive response. Their claim, that their manifesto was Quran, also helped them in winning over a sizable number of voters from all over Pakistan. The attendance in P. N. A. public meetings and rallies was at times unexpected, even for the Alliance leadership itself.
Finally the elections were held on March 7 in which Pakistan Peoples Party managed to win 155 out of 200 seats in the National Assembly. The results of the elections astonished political pundits both inside and outside Pakistan. Pakistan National Alliance was only able to win 36 National Assembly seats. To add insult to injury, the Alliance could only win 8 out of 116 seats of the National Assembly from Punjab, and failed to win even a single seat from Lahore and Rawalpindi, cities in which they had organized big public gatherings and processions. Pakistan National Alliance leaders protested that there had been a systematic rigging of election results to defeat them. At many places, particularly where the P. N. A. candidates were strong, the polling was alleged to have been blocked for hours. There were also reports that P. P. P. armed personnel in police uniform removed ballot boxes. Marked ballot papers were also found on the streets in Karachi and Lahore. Rumors quickly circulated that the results in key constituencies were issued directly from the Prime Minister’s office. P. N. A. boycotted the provincial elections. P. P. P. resorted to bogus voting merely to prove that voters had come to cast their ballot.** Overall P. P. P. gained 99 percent seats. The voting figures showing the success of the P. P. P. candidates often surpassed the actual number that turned up for voting. **
At last Martial Law was imposed by Zia-ul-Haq who appointed a committee to inquire into the alleged rigging of the National Assembly polls. This committee was reported to have found a blueprint of the plan of rigging from the Prime Minister House. The inquiry committee alleged that Bhutto had prepared this plan as early as April 1976, under the title of “A Model Election Plan”, later known as the “Larkana Plan”. In an interview to Associated Press of Pakistan, Sajjad Ahmad Jan, the Chief Election Commissioner admitted that the failure of the electoral process was by and large due to the candidates of the ruling party, who exploited their position and party machinery and thus destroyed the sanctity of the ballot box.
^ Who is the author and how credible is the site? People have written the same thing about every election in Pakistan especially surprisingly how various parties who always ally themselves with dictators win the elections even when they have chors like Ch shujaat in their party.
There have been allegations of rigging in all of Pakistan Elections - a tradition it seems first set by our post-independence politicians in the 1950’s.
Election of 1947 - 1958
In the period between 1947-1958, there were no direct elections held in Pakistan at the national level. Provincial elections were held occasionally. **The West Pakistan provincial elections were described as “a farce, a mockery and a fraud upon the electorate” (Report of the Electoral Reforms Commission, Government of Pakistan 1956). **The first direct elections held in the country after independence were for the provincial Assembly of the Punjab between March 10-20 1951. The elections were held for 197 seats. As many as 939 candidates contested the election for 189 seats, while the remaining seats were filled unopposed. Seven political parties were in the race. The election was held on an adult franchise basis with about a million voters. The turnout remained low. In Lahore, the turnout was 30 per cent of the listed voters and in rural areas of Punjab it was much lower. **On December 8 1951, the North West Frontier Province held elections for Provincial legislature seats. In a pattern that would be repeated throughout Pakistan’s electoral history, many of those who lost accused the winners of cheating and “rigging” the elections. Similarly, in May 1953 elections to the provincial legislature of Sindh were held and they were also marred by accusations of rigging. **In April 1954, elections were held for the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly, in which the Pakistan Muslim League lost, and Bengali nationalists won.
Pakistan held it’s first ever party-based National General Elections in 1970/71 - under military ruler General Yahya Khan, and all agree they were the freest and fairest of them all. Unfortunately the losers refused to accept the results. All the elections held after that period have always been either rigged or allegations have been levelled that they have been rigged. As I said a tradition first set by our long dead politicians of the 1950’s.
A lot of Islamic scholars in Pakistan are claiming that Mushy is not a muslim.