Adil Najam
We have recently been talking about whether people think that they should at all vote in these elections and it is clear from reports that the turnout has been rather low. But it seems that like in all elections there are some who you cannot keep away from polling, even if you wanted to. Here are some images of Pakistanis at Elections 2008.
23 comments posted
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I give Musharraf credit for nothing. He did NOT hold a fair election. He just underestimated how much rigging was needed. He used every trick in the book to put the opposition at a disadvantage throughout the campaign. Official machinery was used shamelessly to support the Q league and his other cronies. Large scale rigging was not attempted on election day because he really did think that he and his allies had some real support and “with a little help from his friends”, they would still win enough seats to produce a hung parliament, where he and his agencies would manipulate their way to 5 more years in power (with Zardari instead of Pervez Elahi, but Musharraf still in charge). In our constituency in Gujrat, hundreds, even thousands of people got free bicycles. Local bodies legislators who opposed the Q league were shamelessly pressurised by the police. Money was passed out to all sorts of crooks. ID cards were bought and kept with the local bullies. In some areas, the first Q league person supposedly went in and stamped his ballot and walked out with it. Then the next guy takes that ballot in and brings a bland ballot back, that gets stamped and so on. that way, the only mess the purchased voter can possibly make is to double stamp his ballot and spoil it. He cannot vote for anyone else.
The fact that they still lost most of the seats in the district is due to the fact that they had underestimated how much people hate them.
It is the first instinct of nice people to start being generous in victory. But some people do not deserve any such niceness. He did not arrange a fair election. He incompetently rigged an election. That is further proof of his incompetence. Not a creditable achievement.
Our democrats will probably not do a great job. But if rule of law is restored, if the process is allowed to continue within the law (and that has an elastic meaning in any country, but more so in third world countries), if the suicide brigade is kept under control..then things will slowly get better. It will not be pretty though. …but even if it is as ugly as UP (in India), it will be an improvement over army rule….but it wont be night and day…but still better.
All this, of course, if the suicide brigade is kept under control. That is a very big IF indeed…
Have anyone seen MQM’s stance…………………..they have switched parties already……………Altaf has already said that the will be looking forward to establish government with PML-N and PPPP………..
Altaf has been criticizing PPPP and PML-N and now he is willing to share power………………I wish PPPP donot form govenment with MQM…………
MQM has always been hungry for power….Never have they sat in opposition or boycotted except for the NA only in 1993……
MQM is so hungry for power that it has forgotten that operation against MQM was done during the tenure of PPP andPML-N………
Daktar,
Turnout was very light in the morning but it picked up in the afternoon.Not bad considering the circumstances.
It seems on the surface that elections have taken place peacefully in the main which is good news. Rigging has of course occured all over and even though it is too early to make accurate predictions it seems the masses have made their voices heard.
Feimanallah Pakistan
Wasim
Rizwan, it’s too early to say that about Nawaz Sharif. Let us still keep our fingers crossed, and hope for the best!
Nice pictures but the view seems to be that turnout was much less than expected, no?
I am sure Nawaz Sharif is winning and sad that he has only talked about making it even with everyone. This means his mission will be only revenge. People fell for this man.
Some incidents here and there but not by Musharraf by individuals of Parties. They should be arrested and in those area’s they should re-do the election. Keep it simple and clear.