The pre-poll rigging took place at such an extent that 8 February has been left murky in our imagination. Although the mayhem stared from May 9, eight months before the elections. It is still not established by any court on who was behind the riots on May 9. The PTI leadership and thousands of workers including women were however, arrested and the same amount went underground.
One week before 8 February, the founder of PTI was convicted and disqualified to contest the elections. Additionally, the largest party was not granted its election symbol. This meant that all candidates of PTI on 226 National Assembly and 593 Provincial Assembly seats were declared independent. As we are squarely aware, that in rural areas more than 40 per cent of people are illiterate (they can’t read or write). Only the symbol of bat has played basic and major role for the party’s victory previously. The Election Commission awarded random symbols to the PTI-backed candidates which made it difficult for the people to vote for their preferred party.
Moreover, hundreds of candidates backed by PTI, couldn’t file their papers because of harassment by the police and the security apparatus. This led to the relatives of the candidates run for elections. For example Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s daughter had to run for elections instead. Even The sister of Qaiser Elahi had to enter the elections arena and in Sialkot elderly mother of Usman Dar contested against powerful candidate of PML-N Khawaja Asif.
The most interesting bit is that on the Election Day despite the all measures taken by the state people came out to vote for PTI backed independents. The Election Day was relatively calm but the real rigging started on the night of February 8. Common persons have been introduced to the technicalities of elections including form 45. This form shows the initial counting of every polling booth after which the RO of the constituency prepares form 47 on the basis of form 45. Those who received 10 per cent votes or were losing the elections as per media reports came out victorious in the morning.
Rigging occurred on such a vast scale that even the pro-establishment analysts and media persons cried out loud about the results. Furthermore, the foreign media, Washington and London harshly condemned the rigged elections. Usually elections bring stability in a democracy but the split mandate of Feb 8 elections has brought about more of chaos and crisis.
