GUJRAT, Pakistan — The winners of what may be the most anticipated election this country has held will be settled the usual way on Monday, by the number of ballots and fierce arguments over how they are counted. That, and perhaps the number of guns.
The nationwide parliamentary elections are intended to usher in an era of democracy in Pakistan after months of political turmoil and nearly a decade of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf.
But here in Punjab Province, the biggest prize, the bare-knuckle election fight has included charges of armed intimidation by the police and private militias, as well as bribes through government favors. The threat of violence and the suspicion of rigging hang thick in the air. There has even been bickering over who should operate the polling stations.
A street-level view of the campaign, in fact, reveals the many stubborn shortcomings of Pakistan’s politics, where the parties are organized less around policies than people, often from feudal families who have held sway for generations.
This election battle is especially sharp because Punjab is the home of the political patrons of Mr. Musharraf, the powerful and hard-nosed Chaudhry clan, which is working hard to keep its grip across the province, Pakistan’s most populous. The scion of the family, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, a confidant of Mr. Musharraf, is the president’s choice to be the next prime minister should his party win.
On the other side, Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and now the leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, asserts that his forces will sweep much of Punjab’s rich harvest of 147 parliamentary seats, ensuring a victory for his party, if the voting is free and fair.
The question on everyone’s minds is how free and fair will the elections be.
Ahmad Mukhtar, a wealthy businessman and longtime stalwart of Ms. Bhutto’s, has made a special fuss about guns.
The Chaudhrys, he asserts, use a private family militia and the Punjab police to intimidate voters. The intention, he said, is to keep his supporters away from the polls and tip the vote in favor of the incumbent, Chaudhry Shujaat, the chairman of Mr. Musharraf’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
No comments:
Post a Comment