Re: LB polls transparent: Commonwealth report
What a joke this ‘Commonwealth report’ is, lets see what reports on the ground say
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4308382.stm
Musharraf under fire after local elections
Pakistan’s recent local elections were widely seen by observers as an exercise aimed at consolidating political support for President Pervez Musharraf.
Instead, they seemed to have opened a can of worms for the government with the post-election picture getting more muddled with every passing day.
The opposition describes the polls as the “most violent and most blatantly rigged” in Pakistan’s electoral history.
More than 40 people died in the two phases of the polls, amid widespread allegations of rigging and other malpractices.
The country’s main religious alliance - the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) - has decided to boycott any future election held under the administration of President Musharraf.
“This election was the last straw,” senior MMA leader Liaquat Baloch told the BBC news website when asked to explain the MMA’s boycott decision.
“It convinced us that democracy and all the processes that go into it simply cannot flourish for as long as General Musharraf remains at the helm.”
The secular opposition grouping - the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) - has also expressed a complete lack of confidence in the ability of President Musharraf’s government to hold free, fair and impartial elections.
The ARD leaders are meeting in Islamabad on 3 September to decide on their final response to the conduct of local elections.
Across the political divide Even the government benches are not too happy with the way the elections were managed.
On Monday, several government members stood up to make allegations of rigging when the polls were debated in the national assembly.
The conduct of the elections has also been criticised by independent watchdogs.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission says in its report on the elections that widespread electoral fraud has rendered the entire exercise meaningless.
The report says that the government’s blatant interference in local elections has also put paid to any hope of the general elections scheduled for 2007 being free and fair.
However, political observers in Pakistan say such allegations are nothing new - especially for an election held on non-party basis.
Religious education What may be a greater headache for the government, they say, is the fallout from Monday’s Supreme Court judgment that bars elected candidates armed only with degrees from unregistered madrassas from holding public office.
The top court has ordered the election commission not to recognise the results of those candidates who won seats in the local elections but hold madrassa degrees.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is vague and confusing,” says Senator Professor Ghafoor Ahmed of the MMA.
“Are all madrassa qualified winners automatically disqualified? Or will they get time to pass additional subjects such as English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies?”
“If yes, will their seats remain vacant till they pass these subjects? What will happen to the local councils in the meantime?”
Professor Ghafoor is not the only one confused by the Supreme Court ruling.
Senior MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told reporters in Islamabad on Monday that the Supreme Court judgment was “meaningless”.
He said he had spoken to the chief election commissioner who had assured him that the decision would not affect the outcome of the elections as it came at a time when the polls were already underway.
But the election commission secretary, Kunwar Dilshad, told the BBC news website that the commission had not even looked at the decision as yet.
“We are too busy winding up the first two phases,” he said. “I have not even seen the detailed judgment as yet.”
Delays
Legal experts say it is now possible for a losing candidate to challenge a winning candidate on the basis of educational qualification.
This could mean lengthy legal battles that could delay the process of the formation of district governments.
The final phase of local elections scheduled for 29 September has already been put back to 10 October.
The move is being seen as an attempt by the government to sort out the mess resulting from rigging allegations and the Supreme Court decision.
And observers generally agree that any more delay in the process of establishing district governments can only lend fuel to the opposition’s allegations of electoral fraud.
Some observers feel that President Musharraf and his supporters may be tempted to use the Supreme Court judgment to get rid of what the president himself has often referred to as “an extremist fringe”.
Should that happen, it would amount to disenfranchising a political force that clearly has support at the grass roots. It now remains to be seen how the government wrestles the lid back onto the can of worms blown open by the local elections.
