ISLAMABAD, April 30: Blatant irregularities were seen at polling centres across the country on Tuesday as both eligible and ineligible voters cast their votes, often more than once, in Gen Pervez Musharraf’s referendum on extending his presidency.
Opposition feared that the lack of an electoral roll would lead to multiple voting or ballot stuffing appeared to be justified as many voters openly queued up time and again to make their marks.
At one station a woman claimed to have cast her vote no less than 60 times, while schoolgirls aged well under the qualifying 18 years were seen voting at another.
Student Javed Ahmed, 17, said he cast his ballot twice at two different stations in the southwestern province of Balochistan.
“I took the risk just for fun and they did not even ask for my National Identity Card or any other document,” he said.
Nawaz Bhutto said he paid several visits to different polling centres in the Lyari district, despite “indelible” ink marks made on his fingers to stop multiple voting.
“I voted eight times as it was not very difficult to remove the ink. It was really fun,” he said.
Some 70 million people are eligible to participate, but only a trickle of ballots were reported at most centres, except where crowds had been rounded up to impress visiting officials and international observers.
In Punjab, the only signs of life were at stations where the governor of Punjab, Khalid Maqbool, was accompanied by a group of foreign correspondents. More than 80 per cent of centres were said to be deserted.
Even in Gujrat, a stronghold of pro-Musharraf group, a turnout of just 20 per cent was reported.
In Lahore, Musharraf supporters took to the streets waving flags and playing patriotic songs, but their enthusiasm was unmatched at polling booths.
Two opposition activists were seen being arrested by police in Multan after they tried to distribute anti-referendum pamphlets.
Many traders in Quetta had pledged their support for the referendum, but a strike called by opposition leaders had reduced the turnout.
Voter apathy was evident in Karachi. “I will stay at home and watch TV with my family, although it is not a public holiday,” said a cloth merchant Gul Sher Khan, who runs a shop in the busy commercial centre.
In rural areas turnout was said to be slightly better although seasonal harvests were keeping many people busy.
Thinking herself unobserved, a polling officer quietly stamped ballot papers with a “yes” vote, falsifying votes.
Challenged by a journalists’ team, the presiding officer at a government college for women in Rawalpindi said she had been given no choice by her superiors.
“I have been told by the principal to complete 500 votes at my booth,” she told newsmen, explaining that only 150 people had cast their votes. “What can we do?” she asked, clearly distressed and explaining she had been put under huge pressure. “We are government servants and we have to do our job.”
Evidence emerged that the machinery of state was being used to bolster support for Musharraf and to raise the turnout in a referendum.
Many of Pakistan’s roughly five million public sector employees complained they had been forced to vote.
Journalists saw a police inspector open several ballot papers at one polling station in Rawalpindi to see which way people had voted, and he also brushed aside polling agents’ objections when one man turned up to vote without an identity card.
In Lahore, a group of around a dozen people, each with both thumbs marked with ink indicating they had already voted twice, turned up at one polling station to try to vote a third time, but were refused permission.
At one polling station in Peshawar indelible ink was not being used, and a councillor was instructing people to vote “yes”.
The government denied putting pressure on its employees.
“If you force me to go and vote, you cannot force me to say ‘yes’,” information secretary Anwar Mahmood told newsmen. “If you force me, I will go and vote ‘no’.”
“While working in government, you can’t say ‘no’,” said one civil servant voting alongside his colleagues in Islamabad.
At the government college in Rawalpindi, the presiding officer’s colleagues tried to discourage her from speaking her mind. “You are not local media, you should not be afraid. You should publish this,” she told newsmen. “I am doing this now because otherwise I will have to do it after 7pm, when polls close, and I want to go home early.”
Mahmood said he could not comment on what happened in one out of nearly 90,000 polling stations around the country.
“The fact of the matter is that people are very enthusiastic about the whole thing,” he said. “It has been very peaceful and there have been no incidents anywhere in the country.”
Pakistan has an unhappy history of referendums by military rulers. It is generally accepted the last referendum in 1984, by military ruler General Ziaul Haq was massively rigged in his favour to justify extending his rule. —AFP/Reuters
ISLAMABAD, April 30: Blatant irregularities were seen at polling centres across the country on Tuesday as both eligible and ineligible voters cast their votes, often more than once, in Gen Pervez Musharraf’s referendum on extending his presidency.
