Pakistan’s Election Victory Is Actually A Victory For The Islamists

Interesting analysis of Khadija

Feb 25, 2008 (JUS)
By Khadija Abdul Qahaar

There is a great deal of noise about the “success” of Pakistan’s recent elections, particularly as “a step forward for democracy” and away from fundamental Islam but 70% of eligible Pakistanis didn’t cast their ballot, giving the Islamists the victory.
While there was the expect allegations of rigging and some evidence of election fraud in support of strong-man Pervez Mushareef, there can be no claims of Western political progress in Pakistan where only 30 percent of the eligible voters actually cast ballots. Though not widely reported, voter turnout was substantially lower this time around compared to the 42 per cent in the 2002 elections and the 37 per cent in 1997.
There are 87.5 million eligible voters in Pakistan's four provinces of Sindh, Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan but only 27,018,903 votes were actually cast. And following a data analysis done in the consolidated report of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) election observation cell, some very strange results also emerged.

One of the more questionable statistics is with women voters. The report showed that 40 percent of those who voted were women and this quickly became a sound bite for the “freedom for women in politics” theme promoted in the West. But women were barred from some polling stations and boycotted the election in others. Women were allowed to vote in Khyber Agency and Wana, in the Tribal areas that are viewed as Taliban strongholds but were not allowed to vote in many of the so-called settled areas. In Ghang Sharif, near Lahore, the women were all reported to have ‘abstained’.
In fact, calculating an overall 30 % voter turnout may be too generous. According to the report, the observers in NA-249 constituency reported very low voter turnout of approximately 100 voters at each polling station but the final results announced stated that over a hundred thousand votes had been cast. The polling stations in the Bahaduryar Jang School and the KMC Education Office of the NA-252 also reported very low turn out until MQM workers besieged the area and stamped ballot papers themselves. Not a single vote was cast at a Chenab Nagar polling station.
A leading lawmaker of the Social Democratic Party reported widespread election fraud in the daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Election monitor Sebastian Edathy claimed that 20 million additional ballot papers were in circulation, compared to the actual number of eligible voters. Those entitled to vote cast their ballots more than once in some cases while other eligible voters were simply taken off the electoral list.

Electoral fraud and rigging in Karachi and elsewhere in southern Sindh province was also reported. Senior PPP official Lateef Khosa told a news conference, "Rigging was committed in targeted constituencies" by candidates backing President Pervez Musharraf.

But election fraud is not the core issue. The real story is that victory in this election went to the Islamists and not the pro-western political pundits as the headlines read. With seventy percent of the eligible voters declining to taking part in a process that fundamental Islam rejects indicates that the Islamists hold sway over the grass roots population one way or the other.
Considering the further evidence of election tampering and the substantial decline in the number of actual voters, it is easy to see where Pakistan is headed. Tragedies such as the Lal Mosque massacre, widely viewed in Pakistan as the result of US pressure, have cemented sentiments toward jihad and increased the desire for a return to Muslim law among the population.
Indeed Pakistan’s election signals change but not of the democratic kind espoused by the West. While President Bush lauds the country’s poll results as a victory in his “war on terror”, in fact the Islamists have moved several steps closer to forming another Islamic state. (JUS)