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Poll observers prepare to be “soldiers for democracy”

LAHORE: “You are our James Bonds. We are sending you on a mission. Go to your assigned polling stations with the confidence that you are not alone. There are 900 people working with you in this city. Remember, what you do can bring change to Pakistan. If not immediately, at least you will lay the foundations for a better future.”

With less than 72 hours to go before Pakistan’s most watched election gets under way on February 18 and amid widespread fears of rigging, election observers all over the country are gearing up for the uncertainties of D-day.

Under a tent in the Moghulpura neighbourhood of this city, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) is giving its volunteers last minute training.

“Keep your eyes and ears open, and your mouth shut. If someone is doing something irregular, do not try to stop it. That is not your job. Write it down immediately and say what you have to in your report. Your efforts will not go waste, they will take Pakistan towards democracy,” says Rao Riaz, under whom the volunteers will work in 30 randomly chosen polling stations in the constituency.

FAFEN, backed by a network of 30 Pakistani NGOs is funded by the European Union and Japan through the Asia Foundation. The organisation has deployed 20,000 election observers.

On polling day, they will sit inside polling stations to monitor the conduct of officials and party polling agents. Their task is also to keep an exact count of the number of votes that are dropped into the ballot box. At the end of the day, the observers will also write down the result of each candidate as the votes are counted at each polling station, to prevent an alteration by presiding officers as they send the results to the returning officer of the constituency.

In addition to FAFEN, hundreds of foreign observers are in Pakistan, among them three members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including its head Joseph Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel.

The government says it has issued visas to 3,000 international monitors, but the number includes a large contingent of journalists from all over the world. The actual number of election observers is around 300, with large groups from the U.S., the European Union, Switzerland, Norway and Canada. Under the aegis of the South Asia Free Media Association, 14 observers have also arrived from SAARC countries, including four from India. They are all journalists.

Despite the presence of such a large number of observers, there are widespread fears of rigging and violence especially in Punjab, the country’s largest province, and politically the most pivotal. It is here that the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), the party that held power from 2002 to 2007, is fighting to retain its hold against Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan people’s Party.

Separate opinion polls by two U.S.-based organisations have indicated a sweep by the opposition and a rout for the PML(Q), heightening fears that the party might resort to irregularities to hold on to a respectable number of seats.

Pakistan’s Attorney-General Malik Qayyum had to defend himself on Friday after Human Right Watch released an audio tape of a November phone conversation in which he is heard advising an unknown person that it was better for him to seek a ticket from the ruling party as they would rig the elections massively. The conversation was recorded by a reporter present in the A-G’s room.

Mr. Qayyum vehemently denied that he had ever had such a conversation, and called it a plot against Pakistan by a foreign organisiation.

Earlier this week, HRW had also said the Election Commission was partial. It accused the EC of ignoring allegations of widespread irregularities to the advantage of candidates backed by President Musharraf.

Separately, FAFEN said as many as 15 million voters —17.65 per cent of an estimated 87.5 million voters — may still be missing from the E.C.’s final electoral roll and 7.5 million voters may be listed more than once, and separately, 1.26 million identity card numbers may be listed more than once.

Despite the difficulties, FAFEN volunteers are preparing to do their best.

“Our presence by itself will be a great deterrent to those who are planning to engage in fraud. They will think twice,” said Ms. Rehana, a retired school teacher, in Mughalpura. “They know someone will be watching them. I cannot stop a bomb blast, but where I’m present, I will not allow any fraud. I think of myself as a soldier in the struggle for democracy.”

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