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Physical Abuse, Intimidation Force Pakistanis To Vote For Musharraf: Rights Group
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Carried to the voting polls
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ISLAMABAD,
May 1 (News Agencies) - Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's
referendum to extend his tenure as president was marred by blatant
ballot rigging and generally low turnout, an independent rights group
said Wednesday, May 1.
In the first independent assessment of Tuesday's referendum, the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said gross irregularities,
including physical abuse and intimidation were seen across the
country, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"The HRCP regrets that the irregularities witnessed during
[Tuesday's] referendum exceeded its worst fears," commission
chairman Afrasiab Khattak said in a statement.
He said "apart from anything else, the manner in which the people
were hustled into voting and the flagrant abuse of election procedures
degraded the very concept of democratic choice."
"The people were given an experience that casts ominous shadows
on their path to democratic revival."
Musharraf, who staged a bloodless coup in 1999 and named himself
president in June 2001, is hoping to use the vote to legitimize his
position ahead of general elections scheduled for October 2002.
Ballots were still being counted Wednesday morning, but initial
results, according to the state-run media, showed Musharraf had won
more than 95 percent of the vote.
Khattak said polling staff, municipal councilors and the Electoral
Commission's so-called neutral observers "stamped ballots
themselves" in some polling stations.
At one station the "presiding officer was beaten up for resisting
the stuffing of the ballot boxes," and reports of scuffles
between councilors and polling staff were received from several towns.
"Voters marshaled by local councilors enjoyed the freedom to vote
as many times as they wished," Khattak said, basing his
information on reports from HRCP volunteers who monitored the
referendum.
"The
polling stations were arranged in clusters obviously to facilitate
multiple voting."
Khattak said "the voluntary turnout was very low" and most
people who stamped the ballot were "captive voters" like
prisoners and state employees who were obliged to participate. Women
stayed away "in force".
Journalists who visited polling stations Tuesday reported similar
incidents, although the military regime has dismissed all claims of
irregularities and hailed the ballot as a success.
Pakistan's Supreme Court validated the referendum last week, but it
has provoked sustained howls of protest from opposition parties who
say the exercise was unconstitutional and rigged from the outset.
The lack of electoral rolls exposed the poll to fraud, and many people
were seen openly queuing up time and again, with one under-age voter
gleefully admitting to casting multiple votes "for fun".
An opposition boycott appeared to have some effect, although it was
unclear whether the empty polling stations were more a sign of
Pakistan's traditionally apathetic electorate.
Musharraf won more than 95 percent of the vote in the four provinces
of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and NWFP (Northwest Frontier Province).
In the largest Pakistani city of Karachi, election commission results
showed Musharraf had won 215,789 votes with 3,275 against, out of 552
polling stations.
In the capital Islamabad, the first major city to return its results,
92 percent of 211,587 votes cast were in Musharraf's favor, according
to election officials.
Votes were tallied throughout the night but a final national outcome
was not expected until later Wednesday or possibly Thursday, May 2.
Anti-Musharraf party leaders were quick to claim that the turnout,
seen as the key test of Musharraf's grassroots support, was as low as
five percent.
"Today the people of Pakistan have given their verdict against
General Musharraf," said Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, chief of the
15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, claiming the
boycott had succeeded.
"We demand he should immediately step down and let there be an
interim civilian set-up to run the affairs of the country till October
elections."
Government workers were obliged to cast their vote but many polling
stations were empty. Pakistanis still argue over the response to the
last presidential referendum in 1984, with claims ranging from less
than 10 percent to more than 50 percent.
Raza Rabbani, acting secretary general of former prime minister
Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), said no more than five
percent of voters showed up for Tuesday's ballot.
"I congratulate to the people of Pakistan on behalf of Benazir
Bhutto and other party leaders for completely rejecting the referendum
and responding to the boycott call," he said.
"Musharraf has no moral and political authority to continue and
he should step down immediately."
Information
Minister Nisar Memon described the opposition's claims as
"hilarious", adding he expected a turnout of double the 16
percent of votes gained by the government in 1997 general elections.
"Unofficial sources indicate it will be much more than that and I
would not be surprised if it is twice this size," he said.
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