The Hindu : `Yes' for Musharraf

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 02, 2002

Front Page

Front Page

`Yes' for Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

A private security officer is seen beside a billboard of the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, in Islamabad on Wednesday. — AFP

ISLAMABAD May 1. Amidst charges of rigging and serious irregularities by independent observers, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, was declared by the Pakistan Election Commission a winner in the presidential referendum.

While the victory of Gen. Musharraf, with no other contestant in the fray, was a foregone conclusion, it is the nearly 98 per cent approval in a record voter turnout of 58 per cent that has raised several eyebrows in the country.

After counting over 80 per cent votes polled (36.5 million out of an estimated electorate of 62 million) at 8 p.m. Gen. Musharraf was projected to get the approval of over 35 million voters. All mainstream political and religious parties, most of the media and independent observers had asserted on Tuesday that there was hardly any enthusiasm among the people for the referendum.

While the political parties that had given a call for boycott of the referendum estimated the voter turnout between 5 to 10 percent, others had talked about low turnout without speculating on numbers. There was consensus among all on the irregularities in the referendum without electoral lists and freedom for the voter to vote from anywhere in the country.

The controversy over the voter turnout and the size of the victory is expected to go on for some time. However, the managers of the Musharraf referendum appear to be least affected by the questions raised in several quarters on the exercise.

The Federal Information Minister, Nisar Memon, declared at a news conference here that the turnout reflected the "clear verdict" of the nation in favour of Gen. Musharraf.

``The people have given their verdict clearly, and the opposing political parties' refusal to accept the referendum turnout is a negation of democracy,'' he said. The Minister accused the political parties opposed to the referendum of changing their stand on the issue according to a pre-conceived strategy.

``First they said that they would vote against the President and then they said they would boycott the referendum. Similarly, it was out of political strategy and not in accordance with ground realities that initially they put the turnout at not more than 5 per cent and yesterday they conceded that it was 10 per cent — an improvement of 100 per cent. This meant that President Musharraf has got votes more than twice the figure of the 1997 elections when the so-called heavy mandate was based on 16 per cent votes in favour, out of a total of 35 per cent turnout."

The chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Afrasaib Khattak, in a statement said the referendum was marred by blatant ballot rigging and generally low turnout. "The HRCP regrets that the irregularities witnessed during (Tuesday's) referendum exceeded its worst fears.''

``It was farcical. The question of turnout is totally irrelevant because everywhere the votes were stuffed,'' the HRCP Director, I.A. Rahman, said.

``After the low turnout... Gen. Pervez Musharraf should immediately step down and hand over the Government to the Supreme Court of Pakistan so that a democratic Government can be installed,'' the PPP Acting Secretary-General, Raza Rabbani, said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

Stories in this Section

I should have done more, admits Vajpayee

Rs. 150 cr. for rehabilitation

`Yes' for Musharraf

Let's make a new Gujarat : Sonia

No change in our stand: TDP

NHRC extends deadline

Taj security with CISF

Chinese gesture

Bail for RIL officials