This shouldn’t really surprise anyone anymore..I bet Musharraf has forgotten how he used to go on television and insist he wanted the creation of a truly democratic Pakistan
http://www.weeklyindependent.com/news2.htm
Great win
Asma Jahangir – a member of HRCP team - relates her eyewitness account of the shameful tale of what really happened in Shaukat Aziz’s election in Tharparkar
There was hardly an element of surprise in the election victory of prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz, especially after the several reports of pre-poll fixing. There was, however, some expectation of fair play on the day of the ballot, since Mr Aziz’s election was a foregone conclusion and there was no need for any fixing. Sadly, even this pretence was not kept and malpractices as well as rigging were all too apparent.
Was this a simple case of mismanagement? Or were there some hidden expectations, which required manipulation to get the desired result? Or has rigging become a political culture of those in power? There are apparently no clear reasons for rigging a perfectly winnable election, but the complexity of the Tharparkar electorate indicates that it is no safe haven particularly as the goal was to show a landslide victory and not just a simple win for the next prime minister.
Prior to the elections, the Sindh chief minister and his associates had made public statements intimidating their opponents in various ways. For example, H Singh, son of Rana Chandar Singh, was reported on Aug 6 to have said that anyone attending the PPP meeting would get his legs broken.
There are numerous examples of rising percentage of the turnout in the last hour of polling. One such example was witnessed by me at a polling station number 58 (Yousaf Soomro) where by 10:45 am polling in the women’s booth was seven percent and had reached 23 percent by 3.30 p.m. but had increased to 65 percent in half an hour when there were no women in sight.
A similar pattern was seen by all five teams of the HRCP. Four teams witnessed the polling agents of Mr Shaukat Aziz stamping ballot papers in full view of the public.
Incidentally, every polling agent of Mr. Aziz informed the HRCP team that they represented the Arbabs, and only one polling agent mentioned that she represented “Chaudhry Shaukat Aziz”.
In polling station 123, Dr. Tasneem Kausar, general secretary of a human rights organisation, was waving the official stamp and calling out to women voters so that she could note down their ID card details in order to vote for them.
In the same station, another polling agent of Mr. Aziz was sitting on a chair behind the screen to help women voters stamp their ballot in the right place. In at least six polling stations, the percentage of the turnout of women voters was higher than of men. This was, despite the fact that only a few women were actually visible around the polling station. A number of people were seen with multiple ID cards in their hands while waiting for their turn to vote abundantly. There were also reports of child voters, who had also helped themselves while the going was good.
In a number of polling stations, the PPP was not represented by a polling agent. In other places all the agents had been recruited from outside Tharparkar. Even the staunch supporters of the PPP admitted that they could not risk becoming polling agents for their candidate. The majority of the polling stations were supervised by a sidelined presiding officer, but were in full control of either the local nazim or a man of the Arbabs.
The locations of some polling stations had been moved since the 2002 elections. They were located within arm’s length of the various guesthouses of members of the ruling party. There was abundant transport for the voters of Mr. Aziz, while hardly any wagons were seen with the PPP flag. It was reported that 32 cars of the opposing candidate had been confiscated by the police. The HRCP team photographed and saw a large number of official cars being used for Mr Aziz’s campaign. There are apprehensions that reprisals will take place after the elections are over. Time and again people quietly approached members of the HRCP to watch out for post-election repression.