POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Voters Get Carrots, Sticks in Lacklustre Polls

KARACHI, Feb 18, 2008 (IPS) - Voter apathy marked Monday’s general elections that were accompanied by allegations of massive manipulations and violence on the one hand and lofty promises of development and cash gifts by some candidates on the other.

It is yet unknown how many of the 87.5 million eligible voters actually took part in the polling in Pakistan's four provinces of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province, besides the seven tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan. But the exercise, to choose 272 members for the National Assembly and 728 members of provincial assemblies was low-key by all accounts.

A deadly bomb blast in the north-western town of Parachinar, close to the Afghan border, signalled a grisly end to the campaigning on Feb. 16. Almost 40 supporters of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party were killed in the blast, less than two months after the assassination of Bhutto herself on Dec. 27.

The bombings were just some of several incidents of violence that marred the pre-poll scenario, contributing to what observers term as ‘generally lacklustre elections’.

Crucial structural changes affected the credibility of the exercise. The New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) has pointed out "lack of independence of the judiciary; the jailing of many lawyers and activists, many of whom remain detained; a biased electoral machinery; and excessive restrictions on media freedom."

President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule in November 2007 was accompanied by the sacking and arrest of many members of the higher judiciary and a blackout of the privately-owned television channels.

The emergency was lifted on Dec.15, but many restrictions remain, leading an opposition alliance of political parties as well as civil society organisations to announce a boycott of what they term as "fraudulent" polls. The boycott lobby is led by lawyers’ bodies, former cricket hero Imran Khan who heads the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party and chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami party Qazi Hussain Ahmed.

Despite the manipulations and threats of violence, Benazir Bhutto, believing that elections were the only way forward had convinced former rival Nawaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), to participate in the polls.

Following the violence that took place after her assassination, in which some 50 innocent people were killed, police all over Sindh province registered terrorism cases against thousands of PPP electoral candidates and supporters. As many as 78 journalists were also charged, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.

Ganib Chang, a reporter with the Sindhi language daily ‘Ibrat’, told IPS that police in his area, union council Usri (Hyderabad district) "nominated 308 people by name in the FIR and 47,000 unknown people. The total male population covered by the Usri police station is 19,000!"

Figures compiled by the English language daily ‘Dawn’ indicated that such cases totalled over 500,000 on Jan. 8, 2008. Most were registered against ‘unknown persons’ who can be nominated to the first information report (FIR) once they are identified.

Chang managed to obtain bail before arrest, but still faces ongoing court hearings along with Ramzan Brohi of the daily ‘Jurhat’, whom police stripped, beat and detained for 14 days. Both journalists were charged with burning a government school building. The court dismissed another case filed against them, of stealing steel girders used in roofing construction.

Such intimidation contrasts with the promises of projects and development. Candidates from the ‘king’s party’, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) openly defied the ban on using development or the promise of development during the election campaign in their television and newspaper advertisements. In addition, the government released funds for upliftment projects around the country just as the election schedule was announced on Nov. 20.

PML-Q candidates contend that these projects were approved beforehand and are only now being implemented due to bureaucratic delays.

"The party is doing a lot of funding at the local level. In our patronage system, this is what counts, who’s building the roads, rather than legislation. Who has the most influence in helping the people deal with issues like how to get someone out of the clutches of the police, how to ensure that water reaches their land, and so on," political analyst Ayesha Siddiqa told IPS.

Millions of voters were missing from the final electoral roll (FER) -as many as 15 million (17.65 percent of an estimated 87.5 million citizens of voting age in FER) according to the Fair and Free Elections Network (FAFEN), a coalition of about 30 non-government organisations. Duplicate voters registered are estimated to be 7.5 million, 9.30 percent of 81 million FER records. Another 1.26 million or so computerised national identity card (CNIC) numbers listed (1.55 percent of 81 million FER records) are possibly duplicates, says FAFEN.

"We found one voter in Karachi who is registered at twelve locations," Muddassir Rizvi, national coordinator of the FAFEN’s elections monitoring campaign told IPS. "We have been criticising the electoral roll since the exercise began."

Duplicate votes may be registered by collecting voters’ identity cards in order to register them at another locality than the one they are legitimately registered at. Some are obtained by voters helping out candidates, while in other cases money changes hands.

Amer (last name withheld), a businessman in Lahore, told IPS that when an old college friend requested a copy of his ID card in the summer, "I obliged as a favour to him, although I don’t support his party (PML-Q). Later he decided not to contest but he told me that my vote had already been registered in Jaranwala (a small town on the outskirts of Lahore) although I’m registered in Model Town (a Lahore locality) as well."

According to various newspaper reports, postmen all over the Punjab delivered money orders or cash worth Rs 1,500 (25 US dollars) to voters during November and December, in exchange for the recipients’ ID cards.

Amer told IPS that in the first week of January, a postman delivered Rs 1,500 to a friend of his as a ‘gift’ from the erstwhile ruling party. "He said he needed copies of their ID cards as verification that he had delivered the money, and asked them for a tip since he had made this delivery. They gave him a hundred rupees (1.5 dollars).’’

IPS learnt of a housewife who accepted the money and distributed it among her domestic help. IPS also obtained a copy of a money order for Rs 1,500 from HRW, delivered to the well-known artist and former secretary-general of the PPP Punjab Mian Ijazul Hasan at his home in Gulberg, Lahore.

"Everyone in my neighbourhood received these money orders," Hasan told IPS. "I was in my study when the postman came. He apologised for bringing such a delivery to me because he knew I would not accept it, but said he had to deliver it to everyone in the locality. I took the money order to my study, scanned it, and returned it to him."

The money order typed in Urdu from the account of the Disaster Relief Management Society, Lahore, contained particulars about Hasan, including his parentage, address and ID number, information which "must have been obtained from the electoral lists". A postscript from the "Chief Minister Punjab" signed apparently by the former chief minister of the province, Choudhry Parvaiz Elahi, Punjab president of the PML-Q and an electoral candidate, said: "I pray that this sum will add blessings to your earnings".

Some payments were preceded by a letter in Urdu on Punjab government stationery, bearing Elahi’s photograph and what is apparently his signature. IPS obtained a copy of one such letter from HRW, delivered on Nov. 29, 2007 to a lady doctor in Gulberg, an affluent Lahore locality. The Punjab government’s tenure ended on Nov. 16, 2007.

The letter said that in order to provide relief to the poor, "my government has decided to offer a stipend of Rs 500 (8 dollars) per month to these poor families... We’ve arranged to make quarterly payments of Rs. 1,500 for each family in the programme. You will receive the money through the post office."

The letter ended with a promise to resolve all requests within seven days, and appealed to recipients to "pray that that we win elections, form a government and continue these policies" to "reduce poverty and increase income for the poor".

PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujat Hussain has said that the payments were part of a poverty-alleviation scheme his government had started. The Election Commission (EC) took no action despite the PPP’s demands to take note of this "door-to-door bribery exercise".

EC secretary Kunwar Dilshad has said that that the Commission is "helpless" to take any action unless the district judiciary which oversees the electoral procedure sends in evidence of irregularities.

But observers point out that the EC is fully empowered to take whatever action is necessary in terms of performing its functions and duties. In fact, the EC’s orders towards "doing complete justice in any matter pending before it... shall be enforceable throughout Pakistan and shall be executed as if it had been issued by the High Court."

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