|
Presidential Election, Legislators Resignations and National
Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) – All Contribute Negatively to Prospects of
Democracy and Free and Fair General Election
How have the events of the last one week affected the prospects of free
and fair election in Pakistan? PILDAT, led by its Executive Director Ahmed
Bilal Mehboob, has analysed the recent developments in the
perspective of the coming elections.
Three major
developments of the past week have contributed negatively to the prospects
of free and fair general election in Pakistan.
Just ahead of Presidential election, almost 200 National and Provincial
legislators (out of a total of 1170 or about 17 %) resigned from their
elected positions as a protest to General Pervez Musharraf’s candidature
in Presidential election while he also holds the post of Chief of the Army
Staff. Majority of those resigned belonged to the Muttahidda Majlis-e-Amal
(MMA), the bulk of whose legislators were elected from those areas of the
NWFP and Balochistan where violent anti-government movements are fast
overshadowing electoral politics. These resignations have the potential to
further strengthen the argument in these areas that electoral politics is
nothing but a wastage of time and that the real struggle is the armed
movement employing suicide bombings as the deadliest and most effective
tool to wage the struggle. The resignations have further heightened the
bitter divide and polarisation among contending parties in Pakistani
elections. On the other hand, these resignations hardly affected General
Musharraf’s plans to get himself elected President for another term. It is
very difficult to understand the logic behind resignations from an elected
position. These legislators could have registered protest by other means
equally effectively such as by abstaining or boycotting the Presidential
Election unless they were in such strength that they could jeopardise the
completeness of the Electoral College. The resignations also brought
forward the issues of incompetence, petty differences, lack of vision and
leadership among political parties to the fore, further undermining public
trust in them. These sad developments have further depressed an already
disillusioned electorate.
Just a few hours before the Presidential Election, General Pervez
Musharraf promulgated the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007 which
provided for automatic withdrawal of all corruption cases filed against
“holders of public office” before October 12, 1999. The ordinance was the
culmination of the dialogue going on between General Musharraf and Ms.
Benazir Bhutto of PPP for the last many years. Although the ordinance will
benefit other politicians also, the PPP was its main advocate and vetted
the draft ordinance before it was promulgated. The PPPP, in return, did
not resign from the legislatures. Had PPPP also resigned alongwith All
Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) legislators, it would have created a
major issue of lack of legitimacy for General Musharraf’s election as
President. The ordinance is yet another milestone in the journey of
political disillusionment traversed by the people of Pakistan. There is an
across the board resentment against General Musharraf and all politicians
resulting from the ordinance. People perceive the ordinance as a licence
for committing large-scale corruption by holders of public office. How
will public anger manifest itself in the weeks and months to come is not
clear yet but public participation in political and electoral politics is
expected to be adversely affected.
The result of Presidential Election held on October 6, 2007 after the
resignations of legislators belonging to the opposition and the
abstentions by the PPPP legislators, was a forgone conclusion. General
Musharraf won by bagging almost all votes cast which translate to 57 % of
the total strength of the electorate. Even those legislators belonging to
the ruling coalition who had earlier announced that they would not vote
for a candidate in uniform, fell in line and ended up voting for him.
Although the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the validity of General
Musharraf’s candidature and an official notification of his election has
been barred by the Court, he and his supporters have already celebrated
victory based on “unofficial results.” Election of a President, whose
strong liking and disliking for political parties is clear and manifested
in his pronouncements almost on a daily basis, for the next 5 years sets
the stage for the partisanship of the administration during the coming
General Election. In addition, the people, especially in the rural
constituencies, will understand which way the wind is blowing and tend to
vote for a candidate who is from a pro-Musharraf party because
legislators’ effectiveness vis-à-vis the resolution of their constituents’
day to day problems largely depends upon their association with the
government. Unless the Supreme Court upsets all calculations, the die
seems to have been cast in favour of parties and individuals patronised by
General Musharraf.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) informed the Supreme Court on
October 4, 2007 that they have added 27 million additional voters to the
preliminary electoral rolls taking the total voters’ number to almost 80
million. The preliminary electoral rolls were severely criticised by the
people, citizens groups and political parties as it contained about 20
million less voters than those in the 2002 electoral rolls. The addition
of 27 million voters was affected by comparing the 2002 electoral rolls
with the 2007 preliminary rolls and adding those voters who were
registered in 2002 rolls but were missing in 2007 preliminary rolls. It is
not clear how far these additions are real and how bogus and multiple
voters have been or will be eliminated because the entire exercise of the
ECP was non-transparent.
In a
landmark directive in response to the submission of PILDAT council Mr.
Shahid Hamid, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to place
the entire electoral rolls on its website for all voters and parties to
see and review the correctness of the rolls. This will be the first time
that the entire Electoral Rolls will be available to public for viewing.
PILDAT is a party to the petition filed originally by Ms. Benazir Bhutto,
Chairperson of the PPP, challenging the preliminary electoral rolls on the
grounds of a large number of missing voters. The induction of 27 million
additional voters is a welcome step, provided the ECP can create and
implement a mechanism to check bogus and multiple voting. Earlier, the
Supreme Court had not accepted PILDAT plea to keep the condition of a
Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) for registration as a voter and
for casting a vote. PILDAT had also appealed that National Database and
Registration Authority (NADRA) be directed to issue CNICs to the entire
balance population free of charge before election but the Supreme Court
did not accept the request. The request to direct the ECP to use the NADRA
database to update the Electoral Rolls was also not accepted.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PILDAT will welcome feedback and comments by the readers
and recipients of this Monitor. Please e-mail your comments and feedback
at info@pildat.org
If you wish to
unsubscribe, please e-mail at
unsubscribe@pildat.org |
