Zardari has damaged people’s party in an unprecedented manner. Till 2008 elections, when people’s party supporters used to be unhappy with their parties they preferred not to vote. My prediction for this election is that most (over 50 %) of disillusioned supporters of the party would vote for PTI (especially in Punjab and KP). They cant vote for PMLN as they have been opposing it all thei lives. PMLN tries to portray that PTI will help PPP in the coming elections, although I see PTI damaging PPP more. What do you guys think?
Re: Voters of PPP
Forget about the voters. Not a single 'leader' from the party had guts to stand up and say a word when Doctor Rehman Malik was installed as interior minister and given unprecedented power. The voters are more like cult followers, not party supporters. A vast majority of PPP voters is based in rural areas with limited access to education ("schooling" is not necessarily eduction). They might be disillusioned a bit but they vote with emotions and not with rationality.
Re: Voters of PPP
^ even in rural areas they will lose seats this time around. The other day I was reading voter preferences in Sindh, the preferable percentile has come down from 90 % in the previous elections to 45 % now. Still most of Sindhis would vote for them, but a big proportion wont vote for them (maybe they will refrain from voting).
Various programs are interviewing people on the streets of Urban Punjab and the preferences (of people) are PMLN or PTI. Not even a single soul is taking the name of PPP. Still they will get votes I agree but they could be a fraction of what they have been getting till 2008. This time they don't even have a 'victim card'. :(
Re: Voters of PPP
There is no doubt that PPP losing it's poplourity since ZAB disappear from scene and once BB give it restart she gone too remain Zardari and party did their best to make it wrost, personally I know a lot of peoples who did support PPP but not more and it's ofcorse a benefit goes to PTI rather than PMNL. In Karachi also they face a tough fight in their last two strong holds Malir and Liyari. But for sure still blind followers give their vote on name of Bhutto not for nation interest.
Re: Voters of PPP
‘Where is Bilawal Bhutto?’ Pakistan People’s Party campaign struggles - The Times of India](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Where-is-Bilawal-Bhutto-Pakistan-Peoples-Party-campaign-struggles/articleshow/19427251.cms)
GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan: A cancelled rally, a loathed president and a party chairman kept out of the public glare because of Taliban threats — Gulzar Ali Khawaja has never seen anything like it.
For the first time in his life, the once ardent supporter of the Pakistan People’s Party, which led the coalition government for five years, says he won’t be voting in the general election on May 11 and doesn’t mince his words about why.
Furious, with his face red under the hot sun, he cannot believe that no major party leader addressed the crowds on one of the most sacrosanct dates — the anniversary of the April 4, 1979 hanging of PPP founder, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
“I come here all the way from Karachi to pray on the anniversary and they can’t come?” said the 45-year-old property dealer, who drove nine hours from Pakistan’s financial capital to the Bhutto ancestral seat in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.
“President Asif Ali Zardari has spoiled the party,” he said.
The PPP announced it would kickstart its campaign for re-election after five years in office with a large rally on April 4, but then cancelled it.
Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, and their son, Bilawal, addressed a small gathering, closed to all but state media, in the middle of the night.
Bilawal, the PPP’s star attraction, appeared uncomfortable, speaking haltingly in heavily accented Urdu, a mark of his upbringing in England and Dubai.
He stumbled through the outgoing government’s achievements before asking listeners to “promise” to vote for “Aunty Faryal” – Zardari’s sister – who is contesting the Bhutto family seat.
Few party faithful who gathered at the shrine were impressed.
“Bilawal should not listen to anyone and come out into the public to see the workers as his mother and grandfather did,” Khawaja told AFP.
In contrast, their main rivals, cricket star Imran Khan and frontrunner former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, have kicked off major campaigns drawing tens of thousands.
PPP spokesman and former cabinet minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told AFP that the party respected people’s desire to see Bilawal but said the danger was too great.
“We can’t expose Bilawal to the real threat of terrorism. We can’t risk the life of another top leader,” he said.
The Taliban have directly threatened the PPP and its main coalition partners, the ANP and MQM, often described as “secular”.
During Pakistan’s last election campaign, Benazir defied repeated threats to address enormous rallies across the country.
When she was killed in a gun and suicide attack after an election rally in Rawalpindi in 2007, it shocked the party and the country.
Aged 24, Bilawal is chairman of the party but ineligible to run for office until his 25th birthday in September. Analysts say he appears uncomfortable in public and needs to work hard on improving his language skills.
Zardari, said to be deeply paranoid about security, is also rarely seen in public. He remains deeply unpopular over a multitude of corruption allegations.
“We want Bilawal to come here, to see us, to talk to us and address the workers’ problems. We miss the love and affection of his mother and grandfather,” says Muhammad Urs, 41, who sells snacks in the Garhi Khuda Bakhsh market.
Urs, a life-time PPP voter, threatened not to cast his ballot “until they come and talk to us”.
But the PPP’s Kaira dismissed big rallies as winners of elections, instead pointing to television and the Internet to reach larger audiences, even though the percentage that has regular online access is tiny.
“We believe that our message is going all over,” he said.
But Muhammad Panah Soomro, a labourer in the village of Bangaldero, not far from the Bhutto shrine, is furious.
“I will show them my shoe if they will come here to seek my vote,” he told AFP. The roof of his two-room house was blown off by heavy rain and he has no money to replace it.
“Bilawal doesn’t come here. He’s a rich man and lives abroad. His father is the biggest goon and has looted away his mother’s party and wealth,” said Soomro.
Critics point out that the PPP has presided over the country as the economy has worsened and security has deteriorated and they blame it for failing to do more to improve people’s lives.
They say that a dynastic party, obsessed with the martyrdom of its fallen leaders and pilloried for corruption and incompetency, is losing touch with the centre-left progressive ideology on which it was founded in the 1960s.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a social sciences lecturer at Lahore University of Management Sciences, says that despite the security threat restricting PPP rallies, candidates have been campaigning well at the grassroots level.
“I expect them to put a good show. It’s not possible to predict now how big a victory they will gain and whether they will form the next government or not, but I think they will get good results.”
Re: Voters of PPP
Taking Urdu lessons? 
Re: Voters of PPP
What PPP has done in the last five years, the party actually shouldn't get more than 10 seat all over the country. But it will still end up with over 50 seats. That speaks volume of the collective wisdom of our electorate. As a voter, we are a really sad case.
Re: Voters of PPP
The people who will still be voting for PPP in the coming elections, I have just one thing to ask them:
?اوے کون لوک او تسی
Re: Voters of PPP
PPP's campaign is virtually non-existent, and never kicked off on the 4th like they promised. However, at the grass roots level the PPP folks are still pretty firm. I would not rule them for a major stake.
Re: Voters of PPP
Lets face it. PPP will always be a major political force in the country. Yes its vote bank is reducing day by day. But they still will be a major player because of sindh factor.
Oh and I give one thing to PPP leaders. Majority of PPP leaders who get disillusioned with PPP don't join any other party. Rather they make their separate PPP group LOL. Sherpao, Nahid Abbasi, Ghinwa etc.
Re: Voters of PPP
Oh and I give one thing to PPP leaders. Majority of PPP leaders who get disillusioned with PPP don't join any other party. Rather they make their separate PPP group LOL. Sherpao, Nahid Abbasi, Ghinwa etc.
Situation has changed, many have joined PTI and PMLN now. At one stage there used to be a clear line between 'right' and 'left' which is blurring with the passage of time.
Re: Voters of PPP
Lets face it. PPP will always be a major political force in the country. Yes its vote bank is reducing day by day. But they still will be a major player because of sindh factor.
Oh and I give one thing to PPP leaders. Majority of PPP leaders who get disillusioned with PPP don't join any other party. Rather they make their separate PPP group LOL. Sherpao, Nahid Abbasi, Ghinwa etc.
yeh nahid abbasi kun hai? ghinva was never in the PPP
Re: Voters of PPP
yeh nahid abbasi kun hai? ghinva was never in the PPP
nahid khan sorry.. Nahid khan and Safdar Abbasi.. typo.
Re: Voters of PPP
Only Jiyalas will vote for PPP no one else !
Re: Voters of PPP
aur koi karay na karay pooray pindi i mean punjab mein aik banda PPP ko zaroor vote daalay ga
Janab Uncal AP :)
Re: Voters of PPP
No jiyalas in this thread!? NO FAIR!
Ghinwa is useless as far as PPP goes. Sindhis, for some reason, will have an affinity for PPP and others in country as well as PPP did hand out free jobs IMF aid be damned.
Re: Voters of PPP
Lets face it. PPP will always be a major political force in the country. Yes its vote bank is reducing day by day. But they still will be a major player because of sindh factor.
Oh and I give one thing to PPP leaders. Majority of PPP leaders who get disillusioned with PPP don't join any other party. Rather they make their separate PPP group LOL. Sherpao, Nahid Abbasi, Ghinwa etc.
Agreed, there will be blind supporters, there will be feudal votes and there will be votes for "Bhutto" regardless of how badly PPP does those voters will always vote for PPP. Only those who analyze performance of party in its tenure will very likely change the party to vote but that will be only a small part of the voters.
Re: Voters of PPP
Alhamdulillah this is whats happening to PPP’s leaders in Sindh (Larkana).
Re: Voters of PPP
^ Good to know that :D
Re: Voters of PPP
so... why should one vote for PPP? What has the party done for Pakistanis (non-jiyala Pakistanis, that is) in the last 5 years?
Why would people from interior Sindh vote for PPP? What kind of reforms has the government introduced in health, education and industry during its tenure?