'This Election Is a Joke': Wary Pakistanis Vote
Amid fears of rigging and violence Pakistanis brave it to polling stations.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Feb 18, 2008 — -- Two men, each dressed in a long, brown "shalwar kameez," the traditional wear of the subcontinent, stopped us on their walk back from a polling station in a village outside Rawalpindi.
"The PML-Q is intimidating people," the men said, referring to the political party of President Pervez Musharraf.
The president's name is nowhere on the ballot — these elections are for provincial and national assemblies only — but the vote has become, in large part, a referendum on his authority.
"Many people do not like Musharraf," one man told us. "With Musharraf, free and fair elections are not possible."
Manipulation is part of Pakistan's electoral history and many here told us they expected the results to be rigged.
"The U.S. position has been clear with the government, with the election commission and with the political parties,' said U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson. "We expect a free and fair election."
The United States paid for the training of thousands of election observers. Three U.S. senators and a congresswoman monitored the vote.
"There needs to be the surety of transparency," said Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Houston. "We want to make sure we know that every ballot that was put in was really the ballot of an individual that cast their vote."
Musharraf cast his vote in Rawalpindi and told state television he would give "full cooperation" to the political party that wins.
The election is meant to bring stability and some democracy to a country steeped in political crisis marked by emergency rule, the arrest of Musharraf's opponents and a series of suicide attacks most notably the one that lead to the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Hundreds have been killed in pre-election violence, including nearly 50 people in a suicide bombing outside a campaign office Saturday. Turnout was light. Fear of violence kept many people away from the polls despite the presence of nearly a half-million soldiers and police.
"This election is a joke," one farmer told us. "There is nothing left of this country."
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