Karachi allegations raise concerns over election transparency
“People have manifested their power. Today, I am a happy man,” a smug Justice (retd) Fakharuddin G Ebrahim announced at 2am on Sunday. The record 60 percent voter turnout certainly was something to be content about; but surely the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) knew all was not that well. And so he announced: the Election Commission of Pakistan would “investigate and take action against those responsible for disrupting polling at several (42 to be exact) polling stations of NA-250, Karachi.” Without naming ‘who done it,’ Ebrahim said, “Polling staff had been hijacked and staff had to be recovered.” But this is not enough. The allegations that have come out are serious and both political parties and voters are asking questions over what went on in Karachi’s polling stations.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Dr Arif Alvi has demanded a re-election across Karachi over rigging claims, and promised to “present evidence” to the ECP. He pointed to “women being forced to leave polling stations at gunpoint” and “political activists stamping ballot papers in their favour”. Some evidence of both has emerged and been aired on television channels. The independent Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), which monitors elections, has tweeted that three of its observers had been beaten up by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers in a district of Karachi. While the MQM is considered the main accused, the MQM’s Farooq Sattar also alleged rigging from other political parties in Karachi. The result was that a number of major political parties, including the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), the Muhajir Qaumi Movement-Haqeeqi, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), announced a boycott of the polls in Karachi. The PTI and JI extended the boycott to Hyderabad, the PPP’s Taj Haider alleged rigging in Karachi, and even the MQM chief Altaf Hussain telephoned the CEC Fakharuddin G Ebrahim to complain about the delay in the start of polling in various constituencies.
Some have ventured out to say that the ECP has failed in carrying out its mandate of conducting “free and fair elections” but Karachi is a difficult city that the previous government was unable to control. This does not however mean that the election results should be accepted as is. The ECP itself has admitted, disturbingly, that “we have been unable to carry out free and fair election in Karachi.” Let see if it means that the action required shall be taken.
The allegations may or may not be correct but there are some interesting incidents; the polling at nearly all constituencies could not start before noon, one candidate a convert from PPPP to MQM got record 170,000 votes in a period of three hours’ polling and the when the affected parties staged a protest rally next day, the chief of MQM threated violence and secessions if his party’s “mandate” was challenged. These very facts alone make the integrity of the entire polling exercise in Karachi very questionable. The MQM chief’s reaction shows that everything was not normal; there was some game being played somewhere. The protest rally against MQM electoral victory is significant in the sense that no party in Karachi had the courage to challenge the party in the past, and if this was being done now, it was the real change. Read more at: http://urdumail.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/election…
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