What to do about vote rigging

Hours after voting ended on 11 May, the chief election commissioner appeared before the media to announce that the Election Commission had successfully completed its “difficult task” of holding free and fair elections. As regards reports of rigging, Ebrahim said that there was only one constituency (NA-250 in Karachi) where there had been difficulties.

It is obvious that the CEC had spoken too soon. He was probably unaware at the time that irregularities had also been committed in many other places. Since then, reports of electoral fraud in many constituencies in all parts of the country have been multiplying, backed in many cases by solid evidence such as video recordings and the recovery (or discovery) of stolen ballot papers. Most, but not all, of these constituencies are located in the rural areas, where media presence is thin, mobile phone cameras are not so common and the traditional hold of powerful political families who have mastered the art of manipulating election results remains strong.

In the face of all these allegations, the response of the caretaker governments and the Election Commission, which together have been entrusted with ensuring the transparency and credibility of elections, has been less than satisfactory. While the caretaker governments have largely washed their hands of their responsibility to prevent election-related offences, the Election Commission has failed to treat complaints of election fraud with the seriousness that they deserve. This could compromise the credibility of the election as a whole.

In a meeting with the press last Thursday, the secretary of the ECP reportedly admitted only that there had been “one or two incidents of irregularities”. This admission is certainly not going to pacify the outraged protesters in rural Sindh and on the streets of Karachi and Lahore and elsewhere in the country who have been demanding re-polling or recounting of votes. It also betrays a surprising degree of complacency on the part of the commission.

The ECP’s failure to take immediate action to investigate complaints of rigging and, in particular, its reluctance to seek Nadra’s assistance for a verification of thumb impressions of the voters is difficult to understand. This could fuel street agitation and other forms of protest that could even take a violent turn.

Strangely, neither the caretaker government nor the ECP have ordered an investigation of media reports that some polling stations in Karachi were taken over by armed persons and that unauthorised persons (appropriately dubbed the ‘thappa mafia’) cast their votes openly in the presence of the police and other law-enforcement agencies. The ECP did promise “stern action” against those whose threats prevented the presiding officer and the polling staff of NA-250 from appearing for duty on election day and those who stole election material from them. But even after the lapse of a week, the culprits have not been caught – even though there is little doubt under whose orders they were acting.

Clearly, the caretaker government and the ECP are both powerless in the face of political mafias. Perhaps we should now seek the advice of the British police on how to proceed. The simple launching of an investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police “following complaints concerning comments made in a broadcast” by Altaf Hussain has been surprisingly effective. Pakistan also has laws that find incitement to violence or hatred punishable, but these laws, like many others, are never applied against the powerful.

Like NA-250, the election in NA-125 in Lahore in which a PML-N candidate was declared successful over his PTI opponent amidst complaints of voter intimidation and fraud, has also become a test case for the credibility of the electoral process and the effectiveness of the Election Commission. What lends a lot of substance to complaints of rigging in this constituency is the fact that the PML-N candidate – whose name is not important – secured some 25,000 more votes than the combined tally of the party’s two candidates for the two provincial assembly constituencies into which NA-250 is divided.

The Nadra chairman has said that the thumb impressions of voters in constituencies where rigging has been alleged can be verified. However, Nadra will need time to upgrade its system for this purpose. That time must be granted, even if that means a delay of a couple of weeks in the declaration of the official results. Besides, a verification of fingerprints should be made obligatory whenever a recount of votes is ordered. If necessary, the ECP should ask the caretaker government to issue an ordinance for this purpose.

Since large-scale rigging rarely takes place without the connivance of the polling staff, it is also essential that a recount of votes should be carried out not under the supervision of the same returning officer but under another senior official who has not been associated with the polling.

Despite the many irregularities and shenanigans committed by our politicians, these elections were certainly more free and fair than any held in the last 40 years. This has been acknowledged by several of the observer teams sent to Pakistan. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who was a member of the observer group sent by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), was right in calling them “a credible expression of the will of the people”.

Election fraud has in the past often been instigated, committed or abetted by the military and/or the government in office. This time, the military remained neutral and refrained strictly from interfering, overtly or covertly, in the electoral process. The caretaker governments, having been installed via consensus of the main political parties, were also non-partisan. But they failed in some cases to take the necessary steps to prevent the perpetration of election irregularities by the candidates and must carry some of the blame for these misdeeds.

Some of the allegations of election fraud are evidently untrue. The wild charge made by Fafen, a foreign-funded NGO, that voter turnout at 49 polling stations exceeded the number of registered voters, belongs to this category. Also many of our political parties have not given up the habit of blaming their defeats on vote rigging. The ANP is an exception and must be complimented on accepting its bitter defeat gracefully.

The PPP seems unable to make up its mind. The party’s secretary general has said that there had been “total rigging” and promised to provide evidence later. At the same time, he said the party accepted the results “for the sake of democracy”. Typically, Raza Rabbani, another party stalwart, held the “world establishment” – whatever that means – responsible for the defeat of the PPP.

Electoral rigging is of course not an isolated phenomenon but a manifestation of the low level of integrity of our ruling class and their contempt for the law. It should really surprise no one that those who cheat in the payment of taxes, pocket public money and obtain false degrees also think nothing of stealing votes. Almost all of them do it and get away with it, and those who are better at cheating usually win.

The preparation of improved electoral rolls, the vigilance of the media and the enhanced use of mobile phone cameras by ordinary citizens to record evidence of abuse have not done much to curb vote rigging. There are two main reasons for that. First, it is very rare that an election is overturned on grounds of rigging. Second, it is rarer still that the principal perpetrator, ie the cheating candidate and the polling staff who collaborate with him/her are punished. We have to change both these things.

In the past, it was very difficult to produce evidence of rigging that would stand up in a court of law. Now, with thumb impressions, it is much easier to prove guilt. The Election Commission must make use of this possibility. If necessary, the election law should be amended appropriately.

The writer is a former member of the Pakistan Foreign Service. Email: asifezdi@yahoo.com