These elections have been confusing, many claim it to be free and fair, while others have a different point of view, though my blog is brim full of stories of the other side I care to only share now my own personal experience at having gone out to vote.
Did I want to vote? Plain and simple NO, Then Why Did I go to Vote? the answer was simply to nullify by vote so no one else could use the ballot. Was it legal? I don’t know? Was it my democratic right? I believe it should be, if I don’t have a candidate worthy of my vote I must have a way to say I do not agree, yet exercise my vote.
All day I had decided not to vote but when stories started coming in about blatant rigging. I scrambled and decided to nullify my vote. I went to my polling station, only to stand there for over an hour hunting for my name and not having found it, despite the fact that I had voted in the past few elections from 1997 and even seconded a candidate in 2002, but this time around I found my name absent from the voting list entirely even not traceable on the ECP Website as well.
Having lost all possible hope of locating my name I returned home at least half satisfied that no one casted a bogus vote on my behalf, but also worried that maybe it was a conspiracy against me (lol). Many may argue that it was my responsibility to go hunting for my name in the electoral lists posted in some gravy government office in some corner of Karachi, I might stand guilty of not having done that, but I believe with all the electronic NADRA database already in place ensuring that it should be easy to automatically register all eligible voters to get listed, let alone put the onus on me to ensure my name appears on the elections list and then on the day hunt through hundreds of pages in a trying to locate my name…. little will I know if I might be listed in the next elections until I brave the bureaucratic red tape to get myself re-registered.
I have definitely been disenfranchised of my right to (nullify by vote) vote [is that possible?]
Who else here did not find their name on the voter list
A must read on WindMills of My Mind – Voting: A Right or A Duty?
Comments
12 responses to “Missing Vote / Disenfranchisement”
Awab Bhai,
You have held a principled position but I know the following post will make you and all other TM friends feel happy:
http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Feimanallah
Wasim
Awab sahab, in all this mess you forgot that this election is not about YOU! The “educated” elite welcomed Musharraf, benefited from him, supported him, and then became tired of him. They said all sorts of things against the PPP, that they run the party like property, that no one will vote for them, etc etc….despite death threats, the common man is making his voice heard loud and clear, a final salute to Benazir Bhutto.
I so agree with JinnahFan
btw, it wasn’t realy hard to get yourself registered to vote. There were stalls around everywhere. Your laziness is no excuse.
ps: Even in the states you have to register to vote. It’s not really a big deal, but ofcourse, the seth sahabs of Pakistan don’t want to get off their asses and only want to complain when the government doesnt come in and change their nappies.
Leave the poor guy alone. He atleast made an effort to go and vote.
At least you are in good company. There was another individual who went to the polling station yesterday to cast his vote and was informed that his name was not on the list and therefore not allowed to vote. His name is Abdul Sattar Edhi.
I am extremely distressed at your view of the elections in Pakistan broadcasted over the BBC. Elections is a democratic process that needs to be developed over time and is not simply just turning up at the polling booths on the day of the election.
Pakistanis seem to thrive on complaining about the incompetence of everybody in power, vote rigging and conspiracy theories.
It was nice to read that you did visit Election Commission website (http://www.ecp.gov.pk/) but obviously it was not in time for you to get your name reinstated in the list. I understand that you have voted in the past, but as you might appreciate the voting is only available to citizens in Pakistan and not to Pakistanis overseas. So if during the last 6 years you may have move abroad, NADRA may have taken you off the list. In any case, I think you needed to fill out the forms and get your name in the list.
If you are disinclined towards the persons that the parties nominate, have you ever tried to get like-minded persons together and try and ensure that a person that can truly represent you should get elected.
Expressing apathy towards the election process and not being involved, you will find yourself truly disenfranchised. Comments of despair in the international media will not change things at home, active involvement and extensive engagement would only improve true representation and democracy, and not feudal lords in the guise of democracy.
I agree with TM. With all the computer rolls and id cards NADRA should atuomatically put our names on the list.
Amin – I assume you do not know that the ECP website went live with the electoral list in the starting of January. this list was the finalized list that came for voter registration back in October 2007. These lists appeared pasted across the wall of the city govt office practically unreadable and I know many who spent an entire day looking through the list and utterly confused – the attempt to find your name manually on the list is a task of its own. How difficult it would be to have all vote eligible citizens automatically registered from the NADRA database.
The reason it was not, was the fact that they merged the OLD list with the new list, taking out a number of name which they thought were duplicate. The reason for doing this was the BOGUS ID cards were on the OLD list and it was essential to have those merged into the master list.
It must also be remembered that the Election Commission received a tranche load of cash to improve the list from the US govt only to squander it on quickly merging the lists in 2007 (there was a suo moto case taken up as well in the Supreme court in this regard) more on this later
MY dad voted after 30 years as he and me were not present in Pakistan for the last 30 years but this time he went to the court to get himself registered so he and my family could vote. ME and my mother didnt wanted to go to polls although my mom was a great fan of Nawaz
i told my dad that our vote is of no use i told him that this Pakistan not Canada so dont waste ur time the result will always be in favour of PML-Q but he waked me and my mom around 11 am and told us to dress up and took us to the polling station and than we did vote ……Moral of my story ur vote counts …what ever u think that there was rigging or what ever i think that demorcay is very much alive in pakistan Musharraf kept his promise of free and fair election .
And now i will always vote no matter what people or media says MY VOTE DOES COUNT
Teeth maestro: You have lost perspective! The people have spoken. Give the new parliament a chance for 5 years in accordance with democratic principles instead of raising trivial issues!
I can empathsize with you as I also went to vote for the same purpose, but unfortunately after a lot of thorough checking of a number of lists from my area I was finally told that my name was not in the voters list. Although my husband's name was present. Earlier I have been voting from the same address a number of times. Furthermore, now I even have a NADRA ID Card since the last many years. The lists which were present were not made by following any specific format, neither were they according to any alphabetical order nor according to the NADRA neumerical order. It took quite a while for the voters to find their names. Many women were listed in the men's list and vice versa. However, with the landslide victory of PPPP and PML-N, there is a ray of HOPE for the future of Pakistan……….!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nosheen K. Rahman
Its sad to see how democracy is perceived in our homeland, it begins with nominations moves on to campaign and ends with casting of the ballot supposedly once every 5 years provided it did not occur earlier than that due to another democratic action, while all in between, during and after is no one’s problem.
Any time we talk about democracy in Pakistan we are first to refer to the systems and methods in USA, and yet we are not able to register voters appropriately in only 4 provinces as compared to 50 states and multiple possessions of the USA? everyone posted or living outside the country is able to register to vote, acquire an absentee ballot and cast their vote while in Pakistan even the people who are present have to find out on the day of balloting whether they are registered or not! yet those who are already registered may also be registered at more than one place and even able to cast their vote! I thought that NADRA is well equipped with computerized equipment and databases yet reading the comments it appears differently and it becomes evident that it is not the duty of authorities to register voters and rather the responsibility of voters to assure that they are registered.
May Allah SWT show the light to our nation, it’s institutions, campaigners and voters, ameen.