As people in Pakistan were out voting today, the blogosphere discusses the elections. All Things Pakistan [1], is following the elections and urges its readers to share their accounts.
We are especially interested in hearing reports from our readers in Pakistan about what they see on the streets, what their own first-hand voting experience has been, and what they are hearing from others on the ground. In many wants such eye-witness reports are far more important than what we will all be seeing on our screens.
Crow's Nest [2] explains why voting is a pointless exercise given that the outcome of the elections will have little to do with a democratic process. Even if the elections are not rigged, the political clout of certain people means that there is little scope for real change.
I will not vote because i know the outcomes of the elections have been pre determined. The electoral process is so deeply biased and flawed that the dictator will win. He has all his odds against me. Me and my idealistic approach has no chance of winning. Afterall he is a soldier at war with his own people and i a mere civilian. I will also not vote because no candidate in my constituency is worth voting for. I will not vote because i want to say no to a repressing rule by a feudal after feudal in my city.
On the other hand, at KO [3], the author seems keen on voting, but cannot because of the poorly managed electoral lists which seem to have excluded registered voters, with little room to address issues of missing names.
The voting lists turned out to be as bad as I thought it would – in fact they turned out to be even worse, despite my low expectations. The elections website is completely unusable, and missing a lot of names which were there on the old list. For example, it's missing the names of my family and many of my relatives – most of which are registered voters.
Despite our name not being on the list, I still set out to vote – I spent 3 hours going to all the voting stations near my area, and I wasn't registered in any of them. I met quite a few people I know, and over 50% of them weren't on the lists – so we came back vote less.
Shahab at Metroblogging Islamabad [4] seems pretty excited about being able to vote, and states that too many people back off when they should be voting by claiming that all politicians are crooks. Parliament Watch [5] tracks the outcomes of the elections region by region. The Pakistani Spectator [6] is running constant updates on the outcomes of the electoral process.