Pakistanis raise their voices and vote

Ati Nurbaiti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Islamabad   |  Tue, 02/19/2008 11:40 AM  |  Headlines

Citizens grinned and displayed their ink-marked thumbs after casting their votes in the hope of a better Pakistan here Monday.

Despite continued reports of violence, estimated turnout in some urban areas reached an encouraging 50 percent a few hours before polling stations closed at 5 p.m.

Elections were delayed in a few constituencies because of violence and one candidate was murdered late Sunday, affirming early predictions of a low turnout among the more than 80 million registered voters.

With the delay the number of contested seats fell from 272 to 269 in the National Assembly, while the number of electoral seats for the provincial assemblies dropped from 577 to 570, reports said.

Bombs hit a number of polling stations on voting day and turnout was under 30 percent in some areas according to reported unofficial estimates in the late afternoon.

But even with the violence and boycotts by a number of political parties, there was also excitement and merriment, and those who did show up said they had made their voices heard.

Twenty-one-year old Fizza Jamsheed said she had wanted to vote "because I want a government of my own choice." In this election for the national and provincial representatives, the student studying to be a dentist said, "my opinion matters."

Voting at a boys' college near her home in an elite residential area, Jamsheed, dressed in a bright blue veil, said it was her first time she had exercised her constitutional right, as she had not reached the legal age of 21 in the last elections, in 2002. The minimum age for voting is now 18.

The principal at the college, Habib Khattak, said he hoped the new government would improve education.

"Improving teacher's pay is the basic thing," he said. Teachers only earn some 6,000 rupees a month while living costs in the capital require a salary of at least 10,000 rupees a month.

In nearby Rawalpindi, the atmosphere was livelier, with rows of tents erected by political parties along the streets and shouting party supporters waving flags from vehicles.

An elderly Rawalpindi resident, Zarena Begum, said she voted for "more peace and lower prices."

As expected, women reportedly had the lowest turnout in the Northern West Frontier Province, currently under the influence of more conservative Islamists.

Elsewhere women have a high interest in voting, a university professor here said. "Women suffer the most" in the country, said Nosheen Jamsheed of the CASE university in the capital.

It was under the government of President Pervez Musharraf, she said, that it was possible to have 30 seats in the National Assembly reserved for women.

The government has banned publications of preliminary results and as of Monday afternoon the media was apparently toeing the line. Exit polls are not allowed but Gallup Pakistan said it would conduct a "survey" on voting day.

Though many have predicted a victory of either of the opposition parties under former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and the late Benazir Bhutto, little else is predictable.

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