Do or die – Election preparation by Imran Khan/PTI
It’s a do or die situation for Imran Khan/PTI, and its voters too!
Whether they accept the fact in public or not, I am sure, every news anchor, journalist, political analyst, student of politics and/or political observer in Pakistan knows that:
- PTI is currently Pakistan’s most popular political party.
- Imran Khan is the most popular political leader in the history of Pakistan.
- Despite all efforts by Pakistan’s military establishment, its puppet government, and government’s tools/paraphernalia to malign Imran khan, his popularity and vote bank is still intact, if not increasing.
- Any time general elections are held in Pakistan, and if they are fair and free, Imran Khan’s nominated candidates are almost certain to win.
It is therefore obvious Pakistan’s military establishment and its puppet government either will not hold elections at all, or if they, for some reasons, are compelled to do the same, will make their best to rig the elections against Imran Khan and PTI’s candidates. They will do as much pre pole election engineering in their favor and as much rigging as possible on the election day. They will also try to use the communication channel, as they did in 2018 to fudge numbers, to keep PTI in a vulnerable position in the assemblies and against Imran Khan and PTI’s candidates.
The efforts that are in progress to NOT let Imran Khan or PTI prepare for or win elections are:
- Efforts to eliminate Imran Khan by assassination.
- Efforts to get him disqualified through courts.
- Efforts to keep Imran khan preoccupied with the cases fighting for tons of fake cases lodged against him.
- Efforts to crush the party leadership by blackmailing party leaders and workers.
- Efforts to crush party organization by harassing and arresting active political workers.
- Efforts to frighten party workers supporters by making police cases against them.
- Effort to break the social media support by intimidating and arresting social media activists.
- Efforts to frighten sympathizers by disinformation campaigns.
- Efforts to brand Imran Khan and PTI and its workers as anti-nationals
- Effort to disable Imran Khan and PTI ‘s information, media, and social media cells.
- Efforts to block all channels through which Imran Khan and PTI can reach out to masses or can spread its message to the general people.
As a result of the above it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Imran Khan and PTI to hold their normal election campaigns like any other political party does or will do in the case of general elections.
Today Imran Khan cannot:
- Appear on TV
- Make public speeches.
- Hold political rallies.
- Hold peaceful protests.
- Do canvassing for his party.
However, one thing is still certain, if elections are held, people will come out, will vote and will vote for Imran Khan’s party and/or nominated candidates.
PTI cannot stop political engineering not it can stop pre-pole rigging against them. Considering all above, the only hope for Imran Khan/PTI is by ensuring that no rigging takes place on the election day, during vote casting and during vote counting. Also, by ensuring, through its team of polling agents, that the necessary election administrative process gets followed and documentation and evidence get collected to challenge any rigging, which is very much expected, and to inform the voters and make a case.
Imran Khan/PTI strictly need to:
- Find, nominate, and assign strong polling agents for all polling stations.
- Have double backups of each and every polling agent.
- Provide teams of active and strong workers to support each polling agent.
- Train the polling agents properly on the process, on their duties, rights, and responsibilities
- Train the polling agents on what documents are needed and whose authorizations and signatures are needed on the election results.
- Ensure all polling stations have polling agents.
- Ensure polling agents know what their job is and perform the same.
- Ensure polling agents have backups.
- Ensure they have the necessary strength of political workers outside each polling station to block any physical vote rigging.
- Ensure their polling agents get necessary records/papers after vote casting and vote counting finishes.
- Ensure such papers/records have necessary signatures by relevant election authority.
- Ensure such papers/records get disseminated to their own office and media outlets.
- Ensure such papers/records are released to social media promptly.
On the flip side, even Imran Kahn/PTI’s voters also need to come out with a resolve. They need to ensure that:
- Their name exists in the voter lists.
- They are aware of their polling stations.
- They are aware of the way to cast their votes.
- They come out to vote.
- They cast their vote at the earliest, instead of waiting till the last moments.
- They cast their votes correctly, so the vote does not get rejected.
- They bring as many others as possible with them also to vote.
- They remain outside (at an allowable distance) of the polling station.
- They do not allow any illegal activities to happen.
- They record any illegal activities on camera.
- They share the recorded video clips with PTI, with media and on social media.
- They resist any illegal activities.
- They support their candidates and polling agents in performing their duties.
It’s a do or die situation for Imran Khan/PTI. If it can ensure all the above and enter the elections with the confidence, resolve and strength that it showed last year in by polls by bringing its voters out to the polling stations and by controlling the rigging at the polling stations, it has a chance. Otherwise, the change of results by the culprits will be blatant, no matter if it is illegal, unethical, or immoral. It can use money to buy votes, can use blackmailing, force, harassment, terrorism, or anything that works in their favor. And if nothing works, they can out rightly change the numbers completely ignoring the need for any supporting documents and or the number of votes cast, as they did in 2018.
Even for them it is a do or die situation.
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Babar Saeed
July 14, 2023
The writer is a professional marketer and engineer with good work exposure to governments, and businesses and industries in the private sector in several countries. Idea is to take the first step in adding value to anything that one gets exposed to instead of just complaining about the same.