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ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: An observation mission of the US-based Democracy International has said that the political environment leading up to the polls presented serious obstacles to a fully democratic election.
The head of the 38-member mission, former congressman Jim Moody said at a press conference on Wednesday that the political environment in the year preceding the election, including restrictions on lawyers and judges and on fundamental rights, had not been conducive to open and robust democratic elections.
He said the declaration of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf only two months before the scheduled vote severely constrained political activities. Rallies were banned, media outlets were shut down, judges were removed and detained and thousands of lawyers and civil society activists were jailed.
The state of emergency hindered the freedom of movement and assembly necessary for an open and competitive campaign, he said.
Emergency rule combined with a trend of increasing government pressure on the legal community and the judiciary compromised the impartiality of the institutions tasked to resolve electoral complaints, he said.
He pointed out that the opposition and the media criticised the Election Commission for its lack of independence from the president and the government.
He said the wholesale replacement of judges raised questions about the independence of the EC because the judiciary had an important role in the administration of the elections and the adjudication of complaints. He said insulating all facets of election administration from potential political influence should be a priority for reform of the electoral system.
Mr Moody alleged that local government officials had misused government resources for partisan purposes.
He said violence also tainted the pre-election environment and the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was only the most visible and dramatic example of this.
He, however, said a relatively peaceful election day defied widespread expectations of violence and fears of systematic manipulation appeared to have been blunted.
“Today, there appears to be a broad acceptance of results,” he remarked.
CMD: Another mission arranged by the Centre for Media and Democracy (CMD) unanimously declared the electoral process as ‘transparent’.
The 20-member delegation from seven countries termed the polling across the country ‘reasonably safe and secure’ because of large-scale deployment of security forces.”
JAPAN: A team of the government of Japan said that overall the polling and counting had been conducted smoothly and transparently. It said concerns about misuse of postal ballot system had been widely pointed out.
