Pakistani vote flawed if Musharraf's party wins: US Senator (Biden)

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Pakistan's elections will be viewed as "totally discredited" if the party backing President Pervez Musharraf is declared victorious, an influential US senator on foreign affairs said Monday.

Such election results would also trigger riots and raise questions over the stand of the powerful military, said Senator Joseph Biden, who observed polling in Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan and the country's political hub.

Biden, a leading voice on international issues for the Democratic Party, said that his initial assessment showed people were encouraged to come out and vote without much violence.

But ultimately, he said, it would depend on the poll result, whether there was an escalation of violence and how the military would act.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080218/pl_afp/pakistanvoteus_080218223402

[TwilightGardener]

1. So...If Musharraf's party wins, then the election was rigged? Is there

no way it could win legitimately? I find this analysis troubling. Why have an election at all, then?

[maddezmom]

2. I think it has to do with the early returns and polls

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Asia/STIStory_208081.html

http://www.thestar.com/article/304605

[TwilightGardener]

3. Thanks. I guess it just seems strange to me for one of our politicians

to go over there and declare the results rigged unless they go a certain way. Imagine if officials here declared that if Hillary wins Wisconsin, then the election was automatically rigged and there would be violence--seems like that's a set-up for trouble. I suppose Biden was giving Musharraf's party a warning.

[ohio2007]

4. Women stopped from voting in Pakistan ( rigged in north west provinces)

Women stopped from voting in Pakistan

VOTING stopped at women-only polling stations in parts of northwest Pakistan after elders decided that women should not cast ballots, police and officials said.

Peshawar district mayor Ghulam Ali said voting had to be discontinued in Maryamzai, Budaber and other areas on the outskirts of Peshawar, which is close to the Afghan border where al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are active.

Men and women vote at separate locations throughout Pakistan, an Islamic republic.

"I have reports that elders in the area decided that voting by women is against our culture," Mr Ali said.

snip

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23236877-5005961,00.html

that's one small step for Taliban
one giant leap backward
for mankind.

SO what are the exit polls suggesting who the winner is along the Afghan border provinces?

[gateley]

5. THere were three representatives of the US there to monitor the elections

and to hopefully give a US presence because if the elections are rigged (and I think the general belief is that if they are, it would be Musharraf doing the rigging) the US might cut off some funding. Money talks. We have a right to be there when we're sending them billions.

They did not go into this proclaiming that if Musharraf wins it is an indication of fraud, so I'm wondering if that statement came after their observation of the process today.

I heard a clip on the NPR where Biden said that they're thinking that the recent surge in bombings was a tactic to discourage people from coming out to vote.

[gateley]

6. GREAT links, maddezmom - and you're right. Thanks! nt

[dysfunctional press]

7. scalia is going to have to take biden to task for causing harm to musharraf's legitimacy...

it's his thing.