Pakistan: Bhutto's party guilty of 'blatant fraud' claims niece

[fatman17]

Pakistan: Bhutto's party guilty of 'blatant fraud' claims niece


Larkhana, 18 Feb. (AKI) - By Josephine McKenna - The party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistan People's Party, was guilty of widespread election fraud and vote-rigging, according to her estranged niece, Fatima Bhutto.

In an exclusive interview with Adnkronos International (AKI) from Larkhana in Sindh province, Bhutto said she and her supporters had spent 12 hours travelling across the province on Monday and had seen "blatant fraud" by the PPP in the parliamentary elections.

"It is quite overwhelming," Bhutto told AKI. "What we have witnessed on the ground has been a complete fraud."

Bhutto claimed some voters had used fake identification cards, duplicate cards and illegal cards with no photos to cast their ballots.

She said some voter lists were incomplete and there were also allegations of intimidation by polling agents who favoured the PPP.

Bhutto, a journalist and author, is not aligned with a political party but supports the breakaway party founded by her mother, Ghinwa Bhutto, the widow of Murtaza, Benazir’s brother. Murtaza was killed in a police shoot-out in Karachi in 1996, when Benazir was prime minister.

Fatima Bhutto said on Monday she had received more than 50 complaints from people who claimed to have witnessed voting irregularities in Sindh province, considered a stronghold for Bhutto's PPP, now led by her widower, Asif Ali Zardari.

"I witnessed rigging with my own eyes," Bhutto told AKI. "They were allowing people, who were not registered, to vote."

Pakistani election officials said at least 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in violent incidents during the election which reportedly recorded a low voter turnout.

While polling has ended the results of the ballot for a new national assembly and four provincial assemblies was not clear late on Monday.

Bhutto said independent election observers had absolutely no impact on the election and she would be talking to lawyers about filing an official complaint with Pakistan's electoral commission.

"I have been part of four election campaigns since 1993, and I have never seen anything like this," Bhutto said.

She said it was too early to determine the election outcome.

Although President Pervez Musharraf was not contesting the election, it was widely seen as a referendum on his eight years in power and expected to determine his political future.

The election commission said turnout was about 15 percent early on Monday.

 

[batmannow]

it can be true , we all had seen the video clip provided by geo tv.


all , fatima need is diehard political workers and her aceptence of party leadership.



till , fatima doesnt accept the leader ship of the party once headed by her father MIR MURTAZA , things doesnt go any further.

 

[Flintlock]

She's probably right about the blatant fraud. I"m guessing that the only reason Mushy lost, is because he didn't indulge in as much rigging..

 

[roadrunner]

I agree with the above posts. I think there was vote rigging by the PPP, but one method I'm pretty sure occurred and hasn't been mentioned is Zardari paying off people to vote for him, or promising them jobs and so on. If someone promises an illiterate person a job, they'll get their vote. Musharraf couldn't/didn't indulge in such and was more realistic, which just about surmizes the absurdity of the elections in a country where only half the people are educated and many live below the poverty line. But I feel Musharraf has a trick or two up his sleeve somehow.

 

[blain2]

Fatima Bhutto gets my vote! I am liking more and more of the stuff that she has been speaking about...seems like she has a very balanced personality.

 

[batmannow]

FATIMA MURTAZA BHUTTO is realy a future prospect, she is well educated , well grommed, well desrved also she also knows the problems of common peoples of pakistan.

but some how it seems FATIMA isnt ready to accept the leadership of the party,insted she is still writing articls in Newspapers.

her step mother MSS GHINWA BHUTTO done great job to keeping a party alive, and her loyality with BHUTTO family is un questionable, but her time as a leader of the party is surely over.

it wouldbe good that FATIMA should start considering herself as a leader for this genration.
i guss it wouldbe a great attaraction for the old party workers like MR,SHERPAO MR, FASIL SALEH HAYAT and many more like them.
and also for the people of pakistan.

WISHING A VERY GOOD LUCK TO MS FATIMA MURTAZA BHUTTO.

 

[relent8]

Musharraf couldn't/didn't indulge in such and was more realistic, which just about surmizes the absurdity of the elections in a country where only half the people are educated and many live below the poverty line. But I feel Musharraf has a trick or two up his sleeve somehow.

I agree that Musharraf didnt induldge in such riggings, and instead PPP and PML-N did it all.
But still our Jaahil media and some people are taking credit from Musharraf for this election by giving videos of MQM rigging, while they know that PPP and PML-N did 10 times more rigging than MQM. This is the problem of our illiterate people, they are obssessed with Musharraf's hatredness.