LAHORE, May 19: Votes from 23 districts across the country were not included in the overall referendum results for fear of an unrealistic ‘turnout,’ Jamaat-i-Islami’s white paper, likely to be made public in a couple of days, alleges.

Quoting Election Commission sources, the paper claims that had the results from the these districts been included in the total ballots counted the turnout would have gone beyond 75 per cent.

Realizing that this would make the exercise a laughing stock the world over, the authorities directed exclusion of these results. It was for this reason, the paper says, that statements of various ministers about the vote count differed.

Admitting that it was futile to bring out the white paper if it could not change the post-referendum situation, a central Jamaat leader asserted that being was the responsibility as a political party to keep the record straight.

He said irregularities in the referendum had further eroded away the credibility of Musharraf government among the masses, especially the educated people. He said a large number of teachers had witnessed the irregularities during their referendum duty. Some of them had even been thrashed by police and local Nazims for resisting bogus voting.

He added that taking Gen Musharraf as a straight forward person, these people had supported the military government due to its positions on Kashmir, corruption and accountability. Watching the general lying about the referendum, he said, had disappointed them.

He said it had also demoralized the Armed Forces as officers committed irregularities in the referendum in front of their sub-ordinates.

He claimed that by not denying or clarifying the irregularities brought to his notice by a Jamaat delegation two days ago, the chief election commissioner had admitted rigging in the referendum. The CEC, he said, had just urged the team to forget the past and talk about the future.

JI officials said there had been an overwhelming response from the public to its call for cooperation in collecting data for the white paper. Hundreds of proforma, he said, had been filled up and returned with similar stories of rigging.

They said a negligible number of votes had been cast by noon when the authorities tasked the police and the Nazims to ensure polling of 500 ballots per booth. Proved themselves more loyal than the king, most of them polled almost all the ballot papers available to them.

“In certain areas in Balochistan, according to the results announced by the PTV, the average number of votes polled was 1,164 per booth.”

Names of police officials allegedly involved in the referendum irregularities and those who had reported wrongdoing and were ready to testify are included in white paper. “At least 650 people were ready to depose against the law-breakers.”

The white paper also points out violations of election rules by the government which provided transport and, in some cases, meals, to voters. The publication of advertisements by some five-star hotels offering free tea and biscuits to voters, a “facility” also was availed by foreigners, and provision of Rs25,000 to each union council as “referendum expenses” were glaring examples of these violations.