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Pakistani Referendum Open To Manipulation: Analysts
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| Opposition political parties and Islamic groups participate in anti-Musharraf rally in Lahore
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KARACHI,
April 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistani opposition
leaders and independent analysts have expressed fears that the
Tuesday, April 30, referendum to extend military ruler Pervez
Musharraf's term as president is wide open to manipulation, news
agencies reported.
Pakistan
goes to the polls to decide whether Musharraf should be granted an
extra five years, but critics say the lack of an official register of
electors leaves the door wide open for corruption.
"Having
no voter list implies there is no standard to judge as to whether the
majority has cast their vote," said Rasheed Rizvi, the former
president of the southern province of Sindh's Bar Association, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Earlier
plans requiring citizens to show official identity cards before voting
have been scrapped and an indelible ink mark on voters' fingers will
be the only technique to prevent multiple voting, a system Rizvi says
will be abused.
The
turnout figure, seen as crucial to the referendum's credibility, will
also be in doubt, he said. "There is no national register of
voters to determine the percentage of turnout," he said.
"In
normal practice it is the majority of the total national registered
votes and the percentage of the vote polled that counts," he
said.
Raza
Rabbani, acting secretary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's
Pakistan People's Party, said the result had already been decided.
"Former
military ruler Zia ul Haq's referendum looked more transparent than
that of Musharraf, because at least it was held on the basis of a
registered voters' list and the condition of the national identity
card was there," Rabbani said.
General
Mohammad Zia ul Haq claimed an overwhelming victory in the 1984
referendum despite a poor turnout and widespread allegations of vote
rigging.
Ghafoor
Ahmed, deputy head of Pakistan's main fundamentalist party
Jamaat-i-Islami, described Musharraf's referendum as the worst in
Pakistan's history. "Musharraf has been talking about checks and
balances, but there is no check on him. He wants absolute power and
will get that through a shameful referendum," he said.
Jamaat
was among several opposition and legal groups whose bid to halt the
referendum through Pakistan's Supreme Court ended in defeat Saturday.
The
government's commandeering of public transport to ferry supporters to
a series of public rallies by Musharraf, who took power in a 1999
military coup, has also drawn sharp criticism.
Irshad
Bokhari, the head of the Transport Federation in the southern port of
Karachi, said bus companies had yet to receive any payment for use of
the vehicles. Private transport has also been seconded to take
supporters and civil servants to the polling stations.
Police
in Karachi said they were under orders to provide 10 buses to every
district council leader who had been enlisted to ensure Musharraf's
supporters cast their votes.
The
Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, an umbrella group of
anti-Musharraf religious and political parties, was due to hold a
small protest in Karachi Monday after being denied permission for a
larger rally.
Some
15,000 people turned out at the first officially sanctioned
anti-referendum rally in Lahore on Saturday, where party leaders
condemned the ballot as a farce and called for a boycott.
Pakistan
People's Party spokesman Nazir Dhoki said Musharraf had already
engineered his victory.
"We
have decided to boycott the referendum because we know our negative
votes will be thrown into the dustbin. It is a one-sided affair and
there is nobody to check bogus voting," he said.
"It
is an open fraud. We know that ballot boxes will be stuffed by 'yes'
votes. Rigging has already started," he added, referring to
police beatings meted out to drivers who refused to surrender their
vehicles.
About
half of Pakistan's largely illiterate 140-million population will be
entitled to stamp their mark on the referendum papers, which link the
"Yes" vote to a continuation of Musharraf's reforms.
These
include his drive against corruption, the revival of the economy and a
clampdown on religious extremism.
Polling
stations have been set up at schools, state owned buildings, local
council offices, factories, railway stations and airports to boost the
turnout, seen as a key test of the referendum's credibility.
The
last referendum to endorse a military ruler as president was in 1984,
when General Zia ul Haq secured a 97.71 percent "yes" vote
on a widely disputed turnout of 10 to 50 percent.
Musharraf
is hoping for a turnout of around 30 percent, even if it means kicking
people off public transport to ferry his supporters to the polling
stations.
Analysts
have warned that Musharraf's mandate could cost him dearly if he loses
his image as a well-meaning military man and becomes just another
manipulative politician in the eyes of the public.
On
Saturday, an eleventh-hour ruling by Pakistan's Supreme Court allowing
military ruler General Pervez Musharraf's referendum on extending his
presidency has lifted an embarrassing cloud from the vote.
The court rejected several petitions filed by opposition and religious
parties challenging the April 30 vote as unconstitutional.
Pakistani
newspaper The Nation, said Monday that almost all major opposition
political parties announced boycott of the Presidential referendum and
appealed to the people to observe complete strike throughout
Baluchistan against the fake and unconstitutional referendum.
This
was stated by main speakers while addressing the public meeting at
Nauroz Khan Stadium on Sunday.
The
public meeting was arranged by three political alliances, ARD, PONM
and Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal.
The
paper described the meeting as “disappointing and poor” with a
turn out of not more than three to four thousand. “That is the
manifestation of shattering of the people’s faith they had in
political parties particularly major ones PPP and PML(N).”
The
Pakistani government, reported the paper, also created hurdles to
discourage the opposition parties to hold public meetings like
watering the ground, where these parties was to hold public meeting,
arresting the leaders of the parties and stopping the caravan of the
participants on the entry points of the City.
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