The writer hosts a show called “Capital Circuit” for News One and tweets
@FarrukhKPitafi
First, if there was widespread rigging, who was cheated out of victory? Was it the PTI or the incumbent PPP? You can fairly rule out the PPP because of its abysmal five-year performance and lack of proper election campaigning. That leaves us with the PTI. To ascertain if the PTI’s mandate was really stolen, let us see what was being projected before and on the Election Day. The Economist had already hinted that the PML-N seemed in clear lead. With a number of caveats, Gallup Pakistan had predicted that the PML-N would not only win but get a clear majority.
If you recall my piece “Towards a true democracy” that appeared on the Election Day, I had made two predictions and given one pointer. I wrote: “I see a huge turnout despite all odds. But contrary to general expectations, this voter surge will not benefit a single party… Secondly, I don’t foresee a hung parliament. With the help of pre-poll alliances, the front runner, I believe, will be able to conveniently form the government.” And the pointer was my own vote. I had pointed out that since it had come down to a choice between two conservative parties namely the PML-N and the PTI, I had decided to go for the former.
On that day, I had with me a meticulously prepared list showing the PML-N bagging 111 seats. This list was prepared with a conservative approach and the PPP and the ANP were shown doing slightly better. And yet, there was so much noise around us that I had to endure reluctance while mentioning this conservative estimate in our election transmission.
But if the verdict was that clear that it was visible to the naked eye, was there no rigging at all? Of course not. There was rigging and has always been there. Remember that three majors parts of the country are seriously troubled, namely; Fata, Balochistan and Karachi. Given the situation of law and order there, you cannot rule out the possibility of huge manipulation. But that’s a given and you cannot magnify it beyond proportion. With the passage of time, the situation will improve. And in the case of Karachi, even the protesting parties are to blame. In 2008, through our columns, people like me begged the PTI not to boycott the elections for it was being viewed as a serious contender. But Imran Khan, in his infinite wisdom, does not listen to anybody and hence, is partially responsible for what is happening in Karachi.
But if rigging was not that widespread, why are so many anchors and politicians making so much noise about it. The answer is that on May 11, unfounded expectations of some parties bloated beyond imagination dashed to the ground. A huge part of the elite was mobilised by the PTI, the kind whose voice is heard internationally. But this class mistook their support for the entire nation’s. On my polling station, I witnessed very vocal PTI voters who were quizzing the silent majority. If you revealed that you were not going to vote for their party, they would argue with you ad nauseam. And many ended up lying about their choices. As for anchors, I know there are some conscientious people too but many of our friends simply didn’t want the PML-N to win for one reason or another. When it did, they moved in to discredit the process. With time and due process, all anomalies and attitudes will be corrected. But the truth is that this day marked a huge transformation and we are a democracy today. We need to deal with it.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2013.
COMMENTS (13)
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The answer to the question at the beginning of the article is answered on "sawal yeh hai" for those that watched today's edition.
@Noman Ansari:
"No I am afraid we aren’t a democracy. As long as educated columnists act as apologists for rigging, because it didn’t affect the ultimate outcome, then we aren’t really a democracy."
Equally applies to you doesn't it? You keep crying about one seat which you won in the end, and in the process try to deligitimize an entire election, because of one seat. Does that sound logical to you?
We very much are a democracy today. Of course it's flawed. Which democracy isn't? Its an incremental process. But people like you think that the guy you voted for should win, because hey we-are-so-cool-the-we-voted-pti-so-how-come-he-didnt-win? Which, btw, Arif Alvi did.
"That’s not a scientific study. In my city of Karachi, I know of at least 20 people who live in the impoverished sections of the city, who state that their fingerprints were taken, and then they were ushered out without actually being able to cast the vote for their party of choice."
Now thats VERY scientific of you. Did you take the temperature and measure the surface slope as well? I know plenty of people who told me that they would vote PTI and on May 11 said we just voted PMLN. So this 'people told me so' argument doesnt fly.
Having said that the Karachi protests are pretty legit, but when SMQ says entire Punjab rigged, and IK says 25 seats rigged mandate stolen, does that help the few genuine protests, such as karachi, or does it hurt you? I really want to know, its not a rhetorical question.
I didn't know that in Pakistan there are 17% "elite" voters. That is the %age of popular vote PTI received. If we keep building on the hypothesis this columnist is proposing then KPK has the highest number of "elites" because that is where PTI received more vote than any other place. It makes Pakistan a country with the highest elite to poor ratio. In most countries its usually 1 to 2%. We are not a poor country after all.
" Given the situation of law and order there, you cannot rule out the possibility of huge manipulation. But that’s a given and you cannot magnify it beyond proportion. With the passage of time, the situation will improve."
Translation: One seat won through rigged elections < three seats won through rigged elections. Hence, You have to have a rigging threshold for someone to take notice.
" With time and due process, all anomalies and attitudes will be corrected. But the truth is that this day marked a huge transformation and we are a democracy today. We need to deal with it."
Translation: Deal with rigging by being silent. All will be well.
Alternate translation: Rigging has been around for a long time. You can't come out and protest rigging. That's stupid.
The bottom line is that there was widespread rigging in Karachi.The party which has controlled Karachi for many years (MQM) did not agree to let the army inside the polling booths. If the army had been allowed, the party's activists would never have been able to coerce and threaten voters. In almost all polling stations, they simply took away the ballot papers from the voters and stamped them. And I'm sure that in rural areas of Punjab and Sindh, the same thing happened. In the rural areas, most voters do not even go to polling stations, owing to the large distance involved. Their votes are cast by the polling agents themselves.
Great, another elitist theorist. FYI sir, a lot of people came out on the streets to protest because they experienced some first hand cheating and rigging. The point is not that who would have gained or lost, or whether the overall result would have been affected. These people came out on May 11 in hordes to vote for change as you put it, and it is making them lose faith in the power of the ballot in Pakistan and our electoral process even if the result of one seat is changed. Not to mention the lack of justice available to us. Exactly what kind of democratic process you're trying to achieve by picking on protesting voters who were openly harassed on May 11th and disrespecting their votes is beyond me. All anomalies will be corrected with time only if you bother to point out the wrong today and speak up against it.
good one, though i voted for PTI but the post election behavior of PTIans is forcing to change my options.
Interesting article. However, what is clearly being missed by the voting civilians is the fact that the parties and indeed the civilians have been hoodwinked.
Indeed I note that the ECP that was set up is in fact illegitimate. It compromises of retired judges that have no role to play in the ECP as there is specific legislation which stipulates that retired judges will not take up such a role. As such an unconstitution ECP has been set up and to fulfill the role for PPP and PMLN.
As such every word T' Qadri has said is correct. It is also my view that in hindsight IK should have joined Qadri during the long march and brought down the Government in January, as clearly the same corrupt politicians have come back.
IK will in my view will struggle as no doubt it will be the same ECP or PMLN setting a new ECP prior to the next election.
I also agree with Qadri that the politicians have spent too much on campaigning and thus under declaring the Cost which in itself is a breach. The whole system is against the likes of imaamdaar people's like IK.
I cannot also rule out the fact the IK has deliberately been given KPK with the sole intention of wiping out PTI.
Comments appreciated !!
It isn't about who won. It is about how you play the game.
So you think rigging is only a crime if it changes who is PM? No one is saying PTI would have won, but they may have lost some crucial seats in the NA, which for a young political party is quite significant.
It would be like saying it is OK to let some college students cheat, because in the end, the ones who were going to pass with distinction were going to do so anyway.
No I am afraid we aren't a democracy. As long as educated columnists act as apologists for rigging, because it didn't affect the ultimate outcome, then we aren't really a democracy.
That's not a scientific study. In my city of Karachi, I know of at least 20 people who live in the impoverished sections of the city, who state that their fingerprints were taken, and then they were ushered out without actually being able to cast the vote for their party of choice.
I don't understand how so many people, even respected writers, are confusing the issue.
This is a common sense Op Ed and I agree with the message. The writer says “expectations of some parties bloated beyond imagination dashed to the ground. A huge part of the elite was mobilized by the PTI, the kind whose voice is heard internationally. But this class mistook their support for the entire nation’s.” The fact is many in PTI including IK were supporters of Mush knowing he overthrew an elected govt. Later PTI and Khan did their best to malign, delegitimize and take out the last elected govt brick by brick. They objected to last voter lists that were prepared by Mush and his allies to give themselves unfair advantage and not by the PPP. Yet IK and PTI are now finding faults with the last elections and doing the same to delegitimize the elected govt with heavy mandate. PTI supporters go on record for praising dictatorship against the democracy in which they do not win. Once again the supporters of PTI and Gen Mush are converging together starting from KPK govt. The arrogance of urban elites in PTI has done them in and the irony is they accuse MQM of the same attitude!
You, my friend, apparently don't know the first thing about democracy or common sense for that matter. If you beleive that there wasn't widespread rigging in Karachi of all places than you sir really need to check your facts. The ECP itself claimed that it had failed to perform free and fair elections in Karachi. So if you still think that these "elitest" are trying to deligitimize democracy than I have no words for you. These so called elitest people didn't go out to protest for themselves they are fighting for democracy, the are fighting for Pakistan. which is the bigger picture people sometimes tend to forget about. Your opinion is your opinion and I respect that, but I thought I'd give you my two cents anyways.
Great, another elitist theorist. FYI sir a lot of those elites came out on the streets to protest because they experienced some first hand cheating. You can't call all of them liars. Secondly the point is not who would have gained or lost, it doesn't matter if the overall result would still be the same, the point is that on May 11 people came out in hordes to vote for change as you put it, and it is making them lose faith in the power of the ballot and our electoral system even if the result of a single seat is changed. Exactly what kind of democratic process you are trying to achieve by openly harassing the voters and disrespecting their votes is beyond me.
Excellent analysis fakhro bhai