The elections. The only popularity polls that the Republic recognises. One pollster after another, one media outfit too many, might give its verdict on the popularity of any sitting government but it is the polls that decide what is to be taken seriously. The media, for instance, gives an extremely disproportionate coverage to the issues of the urban middle and upper-middle classes whereas the pollsters and think tanks, as several scandalous examples serve to prove, can give any results a paying customer would want.
But it is not merely popularity that the elections determine. It is something far more basic, far more sacred. The will of the people; the whole idea behind the democratic endeavour. Its strength can be used to defend it against any argument. Despite democracy’s many flaws and inefficiencies, it is this one intellectual bulwark against the tide of fascism and autocracy. But it is when the validity of the electoral process (not the idea itself) is challenged that both the sitting government and the political class as a whole should sit up and take notice. The election commission should be commended for identifying the 37 million bogus votes of the last elections and again, for removing those votes and registering another set of votes, about 500,000 shy of the deleted ones.
The use of computerised biometrics can be used to ensure that the electoral rolls are better integrated with Nadra. With technology becoming cheaper and cheaper, do we see in the future the possibility of biometric software at individual polling stations? This might lead to the ability of citizens to cast their votes even while being physically outside their constituencies. That would, in turn, lead to the possibility of the first truly free elections in decades for certain areas, including notably, certain constituencies in Karachi and other such feudal turfs all over the country.
Interesting times, if only someone could figure out a fool-proof system for it all.
