Re: Fraud fears overshadow Pakistan polls
More reports on rigging in elections…
Pakistan elections ‘rigged for Musharraf’s allies’
By Isambard Wilkinson in Jacobabad
Last Updated: 2:47am GMT 15/02/2008
Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have rigged next week’s election in favour of President Pervez Musharraf’s political allies, according to a retired senior intelligence official.
The former official told The Daily Telegraph that intelligence agencies have targeted key rural constituencies, whey he alleged that electoral rolls have been fixed, ballot-boxes “pre-stuffed” and compliant returning and presiding officers drafted to polling stations.
Monday’s parliamentary polls will determine the political future of Mr Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terror, and the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q).
Mr Musharraf, who sacked the judiciary to pave the way for his re-election as president two months ago, is not contesting the elections. But if his political allies fail to secure a win he could face impeachment by a hostile parliament.
The retired intelligence official alleged that the country’s powerful military intelligence agencies have focused on rigging marginal seats in the Punjab province to enable the PML-Q control the next parliament.
**“Nothing is needed on the day. It is all pre-planned,” he said. **
“The ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate] has directed and advised the PML-Q which seats need to be targeted and assisted them in achieving favourable results.”
**He cited various methods of rigging elections including intimidating local politicians to transfer their vote banks and confiscating villagers’ identity cards that will then be used in postal ballots. **
The Punjab is the most politically pivotal of Pakistan’s four provinces.
It sends 183 MPs to the 342-seat national assembly and is home to the PML-Q’s ruling clan.
However the retired intelligence official said that despite the manipulation of election results Mr Musharraf’s party will struggle to gain control of parliament.
“Rigging will not be enough,” he said.
“If it is overdone people will come into the streets.”
The third opinion poll in a week showed Mr Musharraf’s popularity plummeting, with the majority of respondents saying he was an obstacle to stability.
A survey released this week by the US government-funded International Republican Institute said half the Pakistanis polled planned to vote for the party of the assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, 22 per cent backed the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s party and only 14 per cent favoured the PML-Q.
The 1970 election was the first and only one regarded as fair in a country where intelligence agencies fiddle elections and generals have justified successive coups.
At a local level in Jacobabad in Sindh province, opponents of the PML-Q candidate, Fahd Malik, who is the nephew of the caretaker prime minister, Mian Mohammedan Soomro, claimed rigging tactics were underway.
Illahi Bux Soomro, a candidate for Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), has lodged complaints with the election commission claiming that 1,000 identity cards have been taken from prisoners in the local jail to be used to rig the postal ballot.
He also claimed that a returning officer had been advised to take “sick leave” and a police superintendent had been replaced after refusing to comply with government plans to rig elections.
Mr Sharif’s party said it would hand a dossier on the irregularities to Robert Evans, the London MEP who is leading a team of election monitors from the European Union.
Earlier this week the EU expressed concern about the elections, urging authorities to improve arrangements and free political detainees.
Mr Sharif’s party said it would hand a dossier on the irregularities to Robert Evans, the London MEP who is leading a team of election monitors from the European Union.
Earlier this week the EU expressed concern about the elections, urging authorities to improve arrangements and free political detainees.
Mr Malik denied the allegations, saying that the superintendent had been transferred as he “had not been able to maintain law and order”.
Mr Musharraf has sought to quash poll-rigging reports.
"Despite all rumours, insinuations and every type of apprehension, these elections will be free, fair, transparent and peaceful,‘’ he said, after claiming the vote will be “the mother of all elections”.
He added: “It is not possible to stop some sort of problems at the tactical level on the question of rigging, but we have taken all measures to make it rigging-free.”
The assassination of Miss Bhutto in December sparked a wave of anti-government violence and her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, warned that there could be more protests if the elections are rigged.
Mr Musharraf’s chances of political survival are staked on the PML-Q’s ability to strike a power-sharing deal with Mr Zardari, who held his first election rally yesterday amid fears of a terrorist attack.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/14/wpakistan114.xml
**Mass Rigging Charged Ahead of Pakistan Vote **
Posted Feb 15, 08 5:31 AM CST in World
**Pakistan’s postponed parliamentary elections will finally take place on Monday, but allegations are flying that Pervez Musharraf’s party has already rigged the vote. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have “pre-stuffed” ballot boxes, confiscated voter ID cards, and appointed party apparatchiks in key rural constituencies, a retired senior intelligence officer told the ***Telegraph. *Musharraf 's party is a clear underdog in the election. • An American-conducted survey suggested that about 50% of citizens would support the Pakistan People’s Party, led by Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari—with 22% backing Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League and only 14% favoring Musharraf’s party. Despite the president’s denial of vote fraud, the US State Department has said it expects rigging in Monday’s poll and is worried about the prospect of post-election violence.
