Thursday, Oct 10, 2002
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
General Election 2002 would undoubtedly go down as the first `live' election in the country's three-decade-old electoral history. The first general election was held in December 1970 and ironically it only evokes bitter memories as it triggered a bitter power struggle between the then East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Television, which was synonymous with the state-run PTV, has suddenly come alive now. Four new private channels with round-the-clock coverage, advertisement-capsules of various parties, candidate profiles, question and answer sessions, discussions and satirical spoofs on leaders et al — who would believe that this is the same country where cable television was considered anti-religious in some parts a few months back. And the focus of animated discussions in all the TV channels and commentaries in the print media is about `pre-poll rigging'. Of course, every time there is an election, there are `the king's parties' and then there are others. But this time, uniquely, the two exiled archrivals, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, have joined hands against the Government, accusing it of `pre-poll rigging'. The state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan, ran a cheeky feature on how the `die-hard rivals' are busy singing duets on `pre-poll rigging' and the `machinations of the military establishment'. As if to warn the foreign and local journalists not to be misled by charges of rigging, the Press Information Department, which is under the control of the Information Ministry, has brought out a hand-book cataloguing the record of past elections and rigging charges by the two former Prime Ministers. It covers all the four general elections held since 1988 that marked the end of the 11-year military rule of Zia-ul-Haq. The 56-page document contains photocopies of prominent paper cuttings on what Ms. Bhutto had said against Mr. Sharif and vice versa. While the 1988 and 1993 election was won by Ms. Bhutto's party, the 1990 and 1997 election went in favour of Mr. Sharif's party. Implied message in the document is losers cry the loudest. No doubt hi-tech has come in handy for the political leaders, but on the internet front they still have a long way to go. With many of its important political leaders in exile, one would have expected that the Internet would be a more potent tool of information sharing. However, out of a 100 parties in the fray, only six have websites. These include the Pakistan People's Party, the PPP-Shaheed Bhutto, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, the Pakistan Tahrik-e-Insaaf, the Muttahida Quami Movement and the Jamaat-e-Islami. The PML groups of parties are conspicuous by their absence on the internet. On the other hand, the available sites too are not interactive and are mostly in English. Absence of Muslim Leaguers is glaring, particularly when the League with suffix Quaid-e-Azam is considered to be front-runner and favourite with the Musharraf regime. In any case, many of these too qualify as `corporate sector' organisation with a `.com' suffix though with little to sell. An interesting aspect is sites such as `Heraldelections.com' run by the leading news monthly of the country that promises to help people ``experience the elections in real-time, not prime time'' on October 10, 11 and 12. The package currently being advertised in leading newspapers promises real-time results from polling stations as well as projections, etc. And now on to a brand new experiment — election results through cellphones. A cellphone major here has advertised that it would provide results and party positions as they are announced.
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