Elections have already been almost rigged and manipulated and only the formality of going through motions of polling on July 25 remains. This has been stated by former Senator Farhatullah Babar while speaking here at the launch of election guide by DRI and UNDP on Thursday, according to a press release.
The polls day manipulation of the past days has become far more difficult because of changes in the law and has quietly given way to pre-poll rigging and post poll manipulation, he said.
Seldom before the pre-poll process has been so vitiated, so unfair and so grotesque.
The invisible political engineers seem desperate for a fragmented and divided parliament that is easier to manipulate. "A silent coup has taken place." As a result there is a civilian government but without powers; there is media but without freedom; there are election candidates without freedom to choose a political platform and there are voters but whose right to vote seems to have already been exercised." The election observers are not banned but they are patently discouraged, he said.-PR