What really happened at NA-57

My family and I trekked out to NA-57 (Attock) to cast our votes in our family village. The spirit and enthusiasm was infectious. Waking up on the morning of the 11^th, I felt like my country was once again united. Not because we shared the same political opinions, but because we all wanted to leave our mark, and Attock was no different. Brimming with activity and excitement, painted thumbs were proudly being paraded and compared.

At 5o’clock polling stopped and our family reconvened. This was where the problem started. My aunts complained that women were illegally stepping into the polling booths to coerce voters. In another incident, Punjab police had blocked the doors to the polling station, letting the women in 4 at a time as opposed to the usual 12, which was the capacity of that polling station. PLM-N supporters were being snuck in through the exit doors so they could caste their votes and all other parties were left ignored.

In the areas where support was stronger for non PML-N, delayed voting tactics were being used. Ballot papers, stamping equipment would miraculously disappear, causing countless voters to leave. Between the heat of the 2PM sun, the long queues, the children left alone at home, the number of women began to dwindle.

On another occasion, non PML-N polling agents caught presiding officers stamping ballot papers in PML-N favor and managed to get it on tape. Despite making it in time to quite a few polling stations, it was not humanly possible for the other candidates and their families to rectify the situation all around.

As the evening progressed, the results started rolling in. Attock is a small area thus in the past, results have arrived by 11pm at the latest. This year, however was a different story. By 2am we were still waiting on the results from 12 villages. We had a lead of about 1500 votes and were under the impression that this would probably end in our favor, as the remaining villages were scarcely populated.

The presiding officers of these 12 polling stations were refusing to attend calls. These were small, out lying villages and at 2am, exhausted from the day’s proceedings, no one was willing to trek out to physically check on them. 18 hrs after polling had ended, the results arrived. The papers the results were presented on were not the officially signed counter copies required by the ECP. Instead results were provided on plain pieces of paper. Polling agents complained that the counting of the votes in these villages was non transparent and that they were not asked to sign the final result before they were handed in. However official announcements were made anyways and the PML-N candidate was declared the winner.

Now what I want to know is, what happened between 2AM and 10AM that caused such a drastic change? Why was the PML-N candidate celebrating his win at 9PM when he was losing by 1500 votes? What prior knowledge did he possess that no one bothered to tell us? My families’ reaction to all this was to sit quiet and let it go. The same level of rigging took place in the 2008 elections and the case filed against this same PML-N candidate is pending to this day. Such cases are legally meant to be dealt with in a 120-day period but obviously that did not happen. Thus I understand their apprehension. But this year was meant to be different. 2013 was the first election I voted in. I was aware of the candidates, their past transgressions, their future promises and weighing all these factors, I cast my vote. Being the idealistic young adult that I am, the assumption I functioned under was that my vote would matter. The people around me, who had treated every previous election as a public holiday got out of bed on their precious Saturday to have their voices heard. Voter turnout was in record numbers. They, like me, felt that it was their right to get up and make the change that they have been cribbing about for the last 20 years.

However if I had known that this entire exercise was a sham, I would not have bothered. This article is not my way of saying that PML-N won this entire election illegally or that another political party needs to be declared the new winner. I am highlighting a situation as I witnessed it. I was very proud of the fact that a truly democratic election was about to take place. Irrelevant of the winner, I wanted a clean and fair election that I could look back to as the starting point for a new beginning in Pakistan’s history. I wanted to draw attention to the struggle of an entire family, that like countless others worked very hard for their people and were cheated out of their right. I have proof to support all the claims made above, but who is there to provide justice? Thus I wrote this article. If nothing else it will spread the word and cause more candidates to investigate their results. Maybe one day I will have the election I was hoping for.