HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[This is pretty macabre. Musharaff is holding an "election" to legitimate his military rule and to enforce a "constitutional role for the military...not unlike in Turkey." Note AP can't get the spin right even: is it an election, a poll, or a referendum? What do you call a one party, one man election that will be unmonitored? BTW note the following passage: "Musharraf has decreed that each voter is to receive a mark with an indelible pen on a thumbnail. The mark is supposed to take two weeks to wear off, government officials say." While there will be no voter rolls, I've noticed that this "marking" technology is being pushed in the Third World countries by neoliberal regimes engaged in pivotal election contests. I don't know what the purpose of it is exactly other than to scare off voters who mistrust anything that is imposed by the West (thus helping to reduce the anti-Western vote presumably and establishing a precedent for "marking" or "tagging" Third World peoples maybe?). In fact I remember that this technology - never applied in the West to date to my knowledge - caused quite a bit of controversy in Yugoslavia when it was first applied in the DOS-administered elections for the government of Serbia in December 2000. Many refused to be "marked" and where thus denied the right to vote. After being bombed with depleted uranium, and having toxic substances released in the atmosphere and water as a result of NATO bombing (expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions - EVEN IF SUCH TARGETS ARE MILITARY IN NATURE!) is it wonder that many Yugoslav's mistrusted such a technology? Anyway, the AP dispatch below says everything pretty clearly, although the moral outrage over the subversion of democracy so evident in its dispatches on Zimbabwe in March is notable for its absence...]
Pakistanis Ready for Key Referendum
By KATHY GANNON
.c The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - When voters go to the polls on Tuesday they will be deciding more than just whether Gen. Pervez Musharraf will be Pakistan's president for the next five years.
A vote for Musharraf, a strong ally of the United States in its war against terrorism, is also certain to guarantee the military a more permanent role in civic affairs, probably one enshrined in the constitution.
It's no coincidence that Musharraf is seeking his five-year mandate as president while still in uniform as army chief of staff, the implication being that a vote for him is also a vote for the army.
His banners drive home that point.
``Be Patriotic. Vote Musharraf,'' reads one, accompanied by a picture of the presidential candidate in full uniform resplendent with his many medals.
Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, throwing out democratically elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. From the outset Musharraf has been clear that he wants a more constitutionally authorized role for the army -- a setup not unlike Turkey's.
Pakistan's army has ruled this poor nation of 140 million people for more than half of the country's 55-year history. Each time Pakistan's democratically elected government falls into chaos, the army either outright takes power or orchestrates a change of government from behind the scenes.
Usually the military takes over in the name of saving the country from collapse. It was no different this time. Musharraf charged widespread corruption by Sharif, whom he exiled to Saudi Arabia. He also has prohibited another deposed prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, from participating in October's general elections.
But in this referendum, Musharraf has made it easy for ordinary Pakistanis to vote.
There are no election rolls or voters' lists. Any citizen 18 years old or over can vote anywhere in the country. The lack of voters' registration raises the possibility that one person might vote more than once, but Musharraf has decreed that each voter is to receive a mark with an indelible pen on a thumbnail. The mark is supposed to take two weeks to wear off, government officials say.
There will be more than 100,000 polling stations at a cost of more than $28 million. That figure doesn't include the cost of the security forces being deployed for the referendum conducted by an administration that is completely in the hands of the army. An army officer even runs state-owned corporations such as those that provide power and light.
The military government justifies the expense.
``The referendum will end uncertainty about the reform process, bring stability and restore investors' confidence,'' said Nisar Memon, information minister in Musharraf's government.
``Compared to the expenses, the positive economic fallout of referendum would be much higher.''
The last two bouts of military rule have been strongly condemned by the United States only to be later embraced by Washington, both times because of Afghanistan.
Gen. Zia-ul Haq, who seized power in 1977 and hanged the deposed prime minister soon after, ruled until 1988. He was admonished by the United States after his coup, and all aid was suspended until 1980 - one year after the former Soviet Union invaded neighboring Afghanistan and Washington made Pakistan its front line state against communism.
Pakistan was the staging arena for Afghanistan's Islamic anti-communist resistance, which fought the last Cold War proxy battle between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
The terror attacks of Sept. 11 and the subsequent war had the same effect. Musharraf, who had been sanctioned by Washington and criticized as a dictator, was suddenly praised by Wendy Chamberlin, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, for his ``extraordinary cooperation'' in the campaign against terror.
His good standing with the United States is a mixed blessing.
Hardline Islamic groups are enraged. But most Pakistanis are ambivalent, viewing a good relationship with Washington as a guarantee of economic prosperity but loathe to be seen as dictated to by the only remaining superpower.
According to Pakistan's constitution, the president is chosen by a vote of the National Assembly or lawmaking lower house of Parliament, the Senate or upper house and the four provincial assemblies.
Not this time.
On Saturday, the Supreme Court struck down a legal challenge to the referendum. On Tuesday, Pakistanis will decide. There are few in Pakistan who expect Musharraf to lose. The only question seems to be the margin of his victory.
04/27/02 13:22 EDT
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