The Establishment has devised a number of ways to rig the elections, some conventional but a host of them novel. The sole objective of rigging is to let its favorite party win the polls.  Rigging takes place before, during and after the elections.
Election rigging is a complex process that includes the creation of King’s Party, changes  in electoral rules, delimitation of constituencies, preparation of voters’ lists, appointment of the election staff, the use of administrative and judicial machinery, the establishment of ghost polling stations, engineering of election violence, buying of National Identity Cards, casting of fake votes—and the list goes on.
It happened in the 2002 polls. The run up to the 18 February elections seems to be no different, as, according to political pundits, a widespread process of pre-poll rigging has been underway in the days and weeks preceding the forthcoming elections. This being the case, the rigging on the polls day and its aftermath should be a foregone conclusion. 
As for the pre-poll rigging, the mere existence of a King’s Party, the PML-Q—created by the Musharraf-led Establishment on the eve of the 2002 elections—is a key indicator that such a process is under way.
“King’s Party is not a political party as such. It is a group which wants to enjoy state power. It has no political ideology, nor any commitment to people. The members of this group keep changing their loyalties in every era,” says PPP leader Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali.
To columnist Hasan Nisar, a King’s Party is nothing but “rigging, threat and blackmail.” “Musharraf has himself described in detail in his book how he created the King’s Party, for which threats were made, monetary incentives were offered, and certain politicians were forced to change their loyalties,” says PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal.
“For creating a King’s Party, intelligence agencies spend enormous national resources in bringing various influential figures together and forge an alliance. King’s Party is the name of a group, which is more loyal than the King. It helps the dictator scuttle democracy. The group members are told that their future political survival rests upon supporting the dictator. In turn for their loyalty to the dictator, they enjoy privileges—something that can’t receive through a free, fair and transparent election process.”
According to columnist Nazir Naji, dictators need to create a façade of democracy. Each one of our dictators did it. Ayub Khan created a Convention League. Zia established the Junejo League. And Musharaf created PML-Q. Each of them acted as a front-man for the dictator in the political domain.
Sardar Assef argues, “Unfortunately, most of the time, it is the Muslim League that became the King’s Party. The reason dictators need the help of a so-called political party is because over time external pressure on their rule mounts. Consequently, in order to legitimize their rule, they hold referendums, amend constitutions, and hold fraudulent elections.”
Once a King’s Party is created, then the entire state machinery is geared towards paving the way for its victory in the elections. The main task is to get hold of the winnable candidates.
According to PPP leader Babar Awan, intelligence agencies play a pivotal role in brining winnable candidates to the fold of the King’s Party. Pressure is exercised on those who are amenable to state pressure. The purchasable among them are bought with state money.
Prof Hasan Askari Rizvi argues that the government party has a number of advantages, including the support from bureaucracy, the police and even the intelligence agencies. The latter helps it identify which prospective candidate has greater chances to win the election, how strong is his or her biradri base. Such ethnic and socio-cultural profile of the prospective candidate helps the government party identify the winnable ones, whose loyalties are then changed by whatever means.
“Before the 2002 elections, the intelligence officials interviewed PML-Q election candidates in the Governor House itself,” says Ahsan Iqbal.
PML-N leader Kwaja Saad Rafiq adds: “Just look at the irony: The intelligence agencies are responsible for guaranteeing our security; instead, they are busy in politics. They determine who goes to the Assemblies, and who does not.”
Another form of pre-poll rigging is to change the election rules or make changes in the constitution. “Before these elections, the Constitution remained suspended, which is an act of treason. This time, the situation is not confined to mere changing of laws,” says former bureaucrat Roedad Khan.
After the preparation of the voters’ list, election schedule and a code of conduct are announced, in the guise of which again the King’s Party is favored. This is done through having election preconditions such as the graduate degree, physical presence of a candidate while filing nomination papers, no tenure for third time prime minister, and present restrictions on election rally.
Says Babar Awan: “The best example is LFO, which became the 17th Amendment. This was negotiated by the MMA and Musharraf, and what they decided was there should not be a third prime minister tenure. This was a tailor-made legislation.”
Sardar Assef adds: The condition of a contestant having a minimum of BA or B Sc degree was meant to keep old, experienced politicians out of the political process, all those from whom the King’s Party felt threatened. This condition was not meant to improve the parliamentary democracy.”
The same way at the time of the submission of nomination papers, opposition candidates are discriminated upon and King’s Party candidates are favored. “Rules are not interpreted according to their spirit; rather, to help a favorite candidate,” says Hasan Askari.
The de-limitation of constituencies, including creation of new constituencies by increasing Assembly seats, preparation of voters’ lists and appointment of election staff are three other factors that are used by the Establishment to favor the King’s Party.
Saad Rafiq argues, “Natural geographical boundaries of the constituencies are changed, which prevents people of a constituency to vote for their favorite candidate due to logistical and other difficulties. For instance, areas where the King’s Party’s candidate’s biradri is strong are included in the expanded constituency.”
 According to Sardar Aseff, “In Sindh, the authorities have done everything possible to damage PPP vote bank by creating new constituencies. For instance, in a city like Hyderabad, various tehsils have been added to create four NA constituencies.”
Insofar as the preparation of the voters’ list is concerned, the Establishment spends enormous resources to increase the votes of the King’s Party and reduce the voting strength of the opponent parties.
“Thanks to the Supreme Court decision on the validity of old ID Cards for the forthcoming elections; otherwise, millions of votes may not have been cast,” says Sardar Assef. “Voters’ lists have been prepared in the offices of Nazims, and in the presence of former MNAs of the PML-Q. Given that, how can we say that the voters’ lists truly reflect the total voting strength of the country,” adds Saad Rafiq.
Still another way of pre-poll rigging is the transfer and posting of election officials. This is done to facilitate the election victory of the King’s Party. Before the election schedule is announced, district administration, police and judicial officials are posed and transferred to secure the favorable election outcome. There have been many reported cases of such postings and transfers of the DPOs and DCOs, for instance.
This brings us to the rigging on the polling day, for which a number of traditional and newer ways are adopted by the Establishment to help the King’s Party win the elections
Ahsan Iqbal argues, “All they do is to appoint the favorite returning officers and presiding officers. The latter gets stamped ballot papers a night before the election date. They are handed over to the candidates of the King’s Party for potential use in bulk by their voters.”
“In the local bodies’ elections, the ballot papers and stamps were available in the open market,” adds Saad Rafiq.
Another popular way  of the poll-day rigging is through establishing ghost polling stations, which exist only on paper and are not located anywhere. The so-called votes cast at the ghost polling stations are added to the vote cast in favor of the King’s Party candidate to ensure his or her victory in the election.
Moreover, vote-buying is done on a large scale. According to Ahsan Iqbal, “The King’s Party candidates would go to a poor locality, and offered Rs 500 to 1,000 for a single ID Card. Then these ID Cards are given to party loyalists, enabling them to cast multiple votes, which are all fake votes.”
According to Ahsan Iqbal, the police is quite often subservient to the Establishment’s interests and facilitating the victory of the King’s Party. “The police would let the armed supporters of the King’s Party run the show at the polling station. Sometime, this results in violence. The King’s Party workers then manipulate the election result at the polling station.”
The King’s Party in collusion with the district administration also manages to use the private transport to bring its voters to the polling stations. The same is denied to the opposing candidates.
Insofar as the election-day rigging is concerned, newer ways seem to have replaced the traditional modes, such as changing the ballot box or influencing election process through organized violence—even though the latter modus operandi may still be relevant to remote rural areas.
However, just as it happened in 2002 elections, where election results were overnight changed, the forthcoming elections may see fake votes being stuffed into ballot boxes with the collusion of the presiding officer well before the time people start to vote. Another way of election-day rigging can be to provide wrong voters’ lists to candidates. Through fake ID Cards, multiple vote casting by remove the ink, or hiding identity of women voters who wear burqa are other still some other ways. 
Finally, insofar as the post-poll rigging is concerned, even after the votes have been cast, the presiding officer can still temper the result while en-route to the returning officer. The sealed bag can be opened and the votes cast for the opposing candidate can be destroyed.
In the case of recounting of votes, the complainant is asked to file a petition before the election commission, and the decision of the petition is intentionally delayed.
If the results of the elections do not favor the King’s Party, then intelligence agencies come into action, forcing the victorious candidates from the Opposition to change their political loyalties in favor of the King’s Party.
Now that there is no legal bar on parliamentarians for changing their political loyalties or parties, this factor will fare in the aftermath of the coming elections, just as it did in the aftermath of the 2002 elections.
 
--The writer is a senior anchor with Aaj TV. This write-up is based on a series of investigative reports, part of which was aired on his television channel.