Evidence elections certain to be rigged
Updated 22 March 2012, 22:10 AEDT
More allegations are emerging that Pakistan’s parliamentary elections set for Monday are certain to be rigged.
And there appears to be evidence to back up the claims as Pakistan’s biggest election monitoring body speaks of widespread pre-poll fraud by parties aligned with President Pervez Musharraf. The secretary-general of Pakistan’s Free and Fair Election Network claims that intimidation, harassment and vote rigging will lead to violence after next week’s crucial parliamentary poll.
(Sound of Nawaz Sharif’s campaign television advertisement)
MARK WILLACY: With only three days left until polling booths open, electioneering in Pakistan is reaching fever pitch. In this TV ad, the billionaire industrialist and party leader, Nawaz Sharif, can be seen awkwardly embracing the down and out, human debris in a country littered with millions of destitute and poor.
The Sharif party’s symbol is the tiger, and as political metaphors go, it’s not a good one. The tiger has been extinct in Pakistan for hundreds of years. But Nawaz Sharif is determined to resurrect his political career in this election, even though he’s barred from running.
NAWAZ SHARIF: Well, we are in the elections now, up to our neck.
MARK WILLACY: And Nawaz Sharif says the President Pervez Musharraf is also up to his neck in election rigging. Constitutionally, the President is meant to be above politics, and General Musharraf is not even taking part in Monday’s poll.
But Mr Sharif says he has evidence of massive rigging in favour of parties aligned with the President.
NAWAZ SHARIF: We are going ahead into the elections with all these reservations, hoping that the people of Pakistan defeat all these rigging tactics of the
Ggovernment. And these, I’m sure, are under the great orders of Mr Pervez Musharraf.
MARK WILLACY: The European Union is the only foreign body sending observers to Pakistan for the parliamentary elections. The real hard work will have to be done by the Free and Fair Election Network of Pakistan, and its 20,000 independent monitors.
SARWAR BARI: This is perhaps the most controversial election of Pakistan’s history. People have very little trust in the whole process.
MARK WILLACY: Sarwar Bari is the secretary-general of the Free and Fair Election Network, and he says the independent group has already found evidence of pre-poll rigging, mostly by local officials from President Musharraf’s party.
SARWAR BARI: And they are seen using police, local administration and local staff, and vehicles, official vehicles in the campaign. All these things are a violation of the code of conduct.
(Sound of traffic)
MARK WILLACY: Out on the streets of Islamabad, this election is being seen as a referendum on the leadership of Pervez Musharraf, even though the President is not even taking part.
Ijaz Gilani is the head of the polling organisation Gallup Pakistan, and this week he released a survey on President Musharraf’s popularity.
IJAZ GILANI: And approximately 70 per cent say that he should resign.
MARK WILLACY: But even widespread fraud is unlikely to help the Musharraf-aligned parties, and if this election weakens the President’s grip on power, that too could have violent ramifications for Pakistan.
(Sound of Nawaz Sharif’s campaign television advertisement)
