PAKISTAN: MASSIVE MANIPULATION OF POLL PROCESS ALLEGED.

Analysis by Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Feb. 17, 2008 (IPS/GIN) -- While some Pakistanis see Monday's polls as an opportunity to move forward, away from military interference in politics, the pre-poll process has taken place amid allegations of massive rigging and manipulation.

An audio recording posted on the Internet, allegedly of the Attorney General Malik Qayyum admitting to an unknown telephone caller that the elections will be massively rigged, has added to the widespread belief that the elections are a sham.

But the Qayyum tape is just one element in what has been a stormy run-up to the polls, starting with Benazir Bhutto's return to the country on Oct. 18 and the bomb attack that night on her welcome procession that claimed some 150 lives and left scores injured and maimed. The government used the turmoil, following Bhutto's assassination on Dec. 27 in the northern Punjab garrison city of Rawalpindi, as a basis for postponing the polls from Jan. 8 to Feb. 18.

By that time, say observers, critical manipulations had already taken place, reducing the credibility of the elections, like the sacking of the independent judiciary, setting up a biased electoral machinery, and curbs on media freedom.

A suicide bomber, targeting an independent candidate backed by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), killed at least 40 people and wounded another 100 in the Parchinar town near the Afghanistan border on Saturday.

The Citizens Group for Electoral Process (CGEP), a monitoring body comprising well-known retired judges and army officers, senior journalists and editors, in a pre-poll report released on Jan. 9, termed the electoral process as "highly unfair,"", with an overall score of 26 on a scale of 100.

CGEP termed prospects for fairness of the remaining phases of the electoral process as "very slim,"", based on its own monitoring exercises and lack of judicial independence and the Election Commission's (EC) lack of effectiveness and credibility. CGEP rated the president's lack of neutrality at 14 on a scale of 100, terming it the "most damaging factor" for the credibility of the electoral process.

Musharraf set up a caretaker government to oversee the electoral process that includes several officer bearers and members of the Pakistan Muslim League -- - Qaid- e-Azam (PML-Q) party that supports him.

In addition, as the New York-based lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW) has pointed out, Musharraf has openly asked people to vote for parties that support him (for example during a public meeting in Vehari town in southern Punjab on Dec. 17), and publicly endorses development projects of the previous government advertised on billboards and in newspapers.

The caretaker government was formed without any inputs from the opposition and includes PML-Q's Prime Minister Mianmohammad Soomro, information and broadcasting Minister Nisar Memon and federal minister for inter-provincial coordination Muhammad Amjad. Roshan Khurshid Bharucha, a minister in the Balochistan provincial caretaker government and a PML-Q member, is also contesting elections, in open violation of election rules.

The EC's "lack of independence and impartiality is among the crucial structural issues impeding free and fair elections," said HRW, noting that the commission is headed by a retired judge appointed directly by the president. In addition, members of the commission are serving high court judges, whose "part-time status compromises their effectiveness," the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan director I.A. Rehman saidtold IPS.

HRW noted that Musharraf appointed two of these members after the majority of judges resigned following his imposition of emergency rule on Nov. 3. One of the new appointees Justice Ghulam Dastagir Shahani, "is a lawyer with no judicial experience." He was appointed to the Sindh High Court on Dec. 14 and to the EC on Jan. 5 by Musharraf, although more experienced judges were available.

The current chief election commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq, a retired supreme court judge, called his impartiality into question when he amended the rules of the presidential polls of October 2007 to allow Musharraf to contest the election while still army chief, "''in violation of a clear constitutional prohibition"''.

Spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Siddiqul Farooq saidtold IPS that the EC is "nothing more than a post office."". He pointed to the EC's continually turning a blind eye to irregularities being openly committed, like over-regulation size banners, electoral material placed on government buildings, and the police providing protocol to the Musharraf-backed PML-Q.

In Lahore, the capital of Punjab province governed by the PML-Q for the past five years, police have been seen putting up PML-Q electoral banners and posters. Police also provide ministerial protocol to PML-Q candidates and ministers around the country. The HRW report on the EC includes testimony from a television cameraman who captured such footage in a small village in Sindh province and was threatened by police and the ministers; the footage was never broadcast.

The domestic monitoring Fair and Free Elections Network (FAFEN), with over 260 long-term observers in as many constituencies, has documented all these violations and more. The Network saidsays one of its most frequent complaints is that of "police harassing candidates and/or workers of certain political parties by threatening that they will register cases against them. In addition, police are asking supporters and candidates of political parties who formed the opposition during the previous government to stop campaigning. In some cases, FAFEN observers reported that police had directly asked candidates and local government representatives to announce their support to the PML-Q"''.

The manipulation of the electoral machinery includes extensive transfers and postings of judges and other officials across the country after the election schedule was announced on Nov. 20, 2007, despite the ban on such appointments.

According to HRW, the government appointed 59 civil judges in early January across the North West Frontier Province as well as at least 90 officials in Sindh province. District judges are responsible for investigating complaints as well as for aggregating the vote count on polling day.

The EC's Web sitewebsite lists over 1,600 complaints, most of which remain unaddressed. EC secretary Kunwar Dilshad maintains that the commission is "helpless" unless the district judges send evidence of wrongdoing.

"The EC should be quickly investigating all credible allegations of electoral irregularities, whether they relate to violence or misuse of state resources," said Asia Director of Human Rights Watch Brad Adams. "Instead of using its legal powers and moral authority to address these matters, the commission appears to be sitting on its hands."