Election riddled with rigging, says blogosphere

The Pakistani blogosphere is bursting with accounts of electoral fraud today as increasing numbers of bloggers tell tales of trickery and blind-eye attitudes in the general elections. Particularly low participation numbers make good conditions for usurpation and in this election both President Musharraf’s party and the opposition may have taken advantage of them. The accounts have yet to be confirmed by international observers.

"If I wanted to vote again, I wouldn’t have a problem"

Commentary from Raja Islam, who maintains along with his friend Ameer Hamza, that it was possible to vote multiple times in a Karachi polling station:

I went to vote this morning with my friend Ameer Hamza. But when we got there, his name wasn't on the list. This has happened to a lot of people because the electoral role was reorganised a few years ago and lots of people got left off and didn't know they had to reregister. Anyway, it wasn't a big problem. We went to see the person in charge of the MQM [an opposition party, but in majority in Karachi], to explain our problem. They said that it was fine because lots of people were abstaining so we could use one of their votes instead. So Ameer took the details of someone else and went in to vote. This is openly going on in Pakistan. If I wanted to vote again, I wouldn't have a problem. I'd just use someone else's name."

Raja's friend Ameer Hamza's account of events is posted on Karachi Metroblog.

Ameer Hamza's voting slip. Each symbol represents a party, allowing illiterate people to vote.

"It wouldn’t have been difficult to vote several times in the guise of someone else"

Our Observer in Karachi, Zaheer Alam Kidvai, confirms rumours of usurpation

A friend called me today. She told me that when she went to the polling station she was told that the register said she had already voted. Therefore someone must have taken her place. I also heard just now on the local TV that stashes of stolen IDs had been found. That doesn't surprise me. The rate of abstention could reach 70%, because people were scared of suicide attacks. So it shouldn't have been difficult to vote several times in the guise of someone else."

"They laughed and said: "These votes are from Allah""

Comment from our Observer Awab Alvi in Karachi. See his blog.

As we walked in, my ID number was recorded on the left stub of my vote, and I was handed a sheet that had already been torn out from the book, so the vote I cast wasn't the one that corresponded with my ID number.

And a person that I know and trust told me that she saw two women stamp four white ballot papers in quick succession, before adding them in to the transparent ballot box for the provincial assembly. When she asked who the votes were from, the presiding officer who was seated right in front of the ballot box laughed and said, "yeh votes Allah ki tarf say hain" [These votes are from Allah.]."

"It seemed as though the elections were fair"

Comment from Mustafa Mohsin, 36, a MQM supporter from Karachi:

I went to vote at 10.30 this morning. It was my first time, and it was quite a pleasant experience. There were only a couple of people voting when I went in. I think many were holding out to hear if there were any terrorist attacks before going to the station.

There were a lot of foreign observers around; it seemed as though the elections were fair. My personal experience is that the voting was transparent. Rigging votes might be happening somewhere- it's a big country. But people might be making things up. We can only wait for the results to find out the truth."