Islamabad April 19, 2008: Pakistan Peoples Party has welcomed the European Union (EU) report on the February 2008 elections in Pakistan as a confirmation of the PPP's documentation of the massive pre-poll rigging and selective rigging on the polls day resorted to by the previous regime.

The EU in its report made public the other day acknowledged pre-polls rigging as "enduring problems with the framework and conditions for elections in Pakistan" and the polls day rigging as "suspicious results in a number of constituencies, including polling stations with implausibly high turnouts and questionable margins of victory". The EU report also said that the Election Commission lacked transparency and did not formally consult with political parties and other stake holders and recommended restructuring of the ECP.

In a statement today spokesperson of the PPP former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the Party had suffered due to these shortcomings and that was why the Prime Minister in his first policy speech had promised initiation of electoral reforms within ninety days.

The Party believed that manipulated power transfer through rigged elections and denying power to peoples' representatives was a root cause of the country's political problem that must be addressed.

These are not mere allegations he said. In February last a former senior officer and number two in a premier intelligence agency made a confessional statement of how the agency had manipulated the 2002 general elections by using NAB and other instruments. Now the EU has spoken of 'enduring problems' and 'suspicious results'.

When political parties are cheated, peoples' mandate is stolen, the manipulators themselves make confessions and independent foreign observes cast aspersions it is time that reforms are undertaken.

The PPP reiterates it commitment to comprehensive election reforms in consultation with stake holders as enshrined in the Charter of Democracy to ensure an independent Election Commission and a level playing field
for all parties, he said.

He said that as promised by the Prime Minister a reform package will be announced within ninety days to reform election laws, correct the faulty voters' lists and introduce latest technological innovations at all stages of elections so that the peoples' mandate could no longer be stolen.



 

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