LAHORE, Feb 18: Preliminary results of Monday’s polls indicated that voters in the Punjab rejected pro-Musharraf forces in an election marred by polling irregularities, a low turnout and violence that killed at least 11 people in the province and left over 80 wounded.
The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) trailed far behind its challengers, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), as unofficial results for 147 national and 292 provincial seats poured in on Monday night. The polls for one National Assembly and five provincial assembly seats were postponed earlier owing to the deaths of the candidates.
Political analysts said that voters in the Punjab had voted for the PML-N because of the party’s staunch opposition to President Pervez Musharraf, and PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif’s consistent support to the deposed judges of the superior courts.
“The PPP, however, appears to have failed to take advantage of the anti-Musharraf and anti-PML-Q sentiments despite the general wave of sympathy in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister and party chairperson Benazir Bhutto,” said a Lahore-based political analyst.
“This was due to the party’s ambiguous and fluctuating stance on the judicial crisis and of the president.”
As matters stood at the time of going to the press, the PML-N was leading the PPP and the PML-Q in the Punjab. Party leader Mian Nawaz Sharif had predicted his party’s victory. Television reports said that he has already offered his party’s support to the PPP but has reportedly urged the party to name its detained leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan as prime minister, impeach the president and restore the judiciary to its pre-Nov 3 status. However, this report could not be confirmed directly from any PML-N leader.
Polls tainted by violence, irregularities
Independent reports from different districts said that violence disrupted and temporarily suspended the polling process at 30 places in 12 districts, while the voter turnout fluctuated between 20 and 35 per cent.
Poll-related violence took one life each in Bahawalnagar, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad, Kasur, Bhakkar, Hafizabad, Okara, Mandi Bahauddin, Daska, Narowal and Gujranwala. However, the police claimed that only eight lives were lost and over 50 people injured. All the incidents of violence invariably involved PML-Q activists or supporters of independent candidates supported by the PML-Q leadership, even against its own candidates. The victims included mainly the workers and supporters of the PML-N and the PPP.
Reports were also received stating that PML-Q activists held polling staff hostage in Gujrat as well as in other places, tried to snatch ballot papers and stuff ballot boxes. In Faisalabad, some PPP activists exchanged fire with the Rangers in Jhumra (NA-75), when the law enforcement personnel tried to arrest them for violating the ban on the display of arms.
In Lahore, meanwhile, PPP workers caught several PML-Q people trying to cast bogus votes in NA-125. Similarly in Multan, policemen were spotted stuffing ballot boxes in favour of former food minister Sikandar Bosan. In Rahimyar Khan, PML-F workers were accused of holding polling staff hostage at a poling station and stuff ballot boxes.
Low turnout blamed on fear
The turnout in urban constituencies across the province was reported to be lower than in their rural counterparts. Although polling did pick up some comparative momentum in the afternoon, it nevertheless remained painfully slow in most districts. The traditional long queues of voters waiting patiently outside polling stations were nowhere to be seen in the Punjab.
Fears of bomb blasts, widespread political violence, massive rigging in favour of the PML-Q and the general economic conditions prevalent in the country were blamed for the rather low turnout. Reports from various districts suggested that hundreds of thousands of voters were unable to vote because of discrepancies and flaws in the electoral rolls. While thousands of people could not trace their votes at all, others had to run from one polling station to another to locate their votes.
“Hundreds of voters from my neighbourhood were disenfranchised because their votes could not be traced despite their visiting at least three polling stations,” said a man from Garden Town in Lahore, who called this reporter in the afternoon to seek help in finding the ‘missing’ votes.
Other citizens had to return home without casting any votes because the polling staff told them that their votes had been “cast by postal ballots.” Other factors that denied many voters their rights included late starts in the polling process and the shortage of polling staff, ballot papers and other election material. In some places, reports said, the police and PML-Q supporters forcibly prevented voters from entering the polling stations.
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