WRAP Security tight in Karachi, Multan violence
(18 Feb 2008) Karachi 1. Paramilitary rangers on alert 2. Mid of paramilitary rangers 3. Rangers baton charge on crowd and people running 4. Rangers arresting man 5. Rangers chase people near polling station 6. Rangers baton charge again 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Naz (no surname given) Pakistan People's Party worker: "I have seen people rigging, rigging is going on like anything. People are just stamping without using the NIC (national identity card). It is not a free election, it is not a fair election, this is my clear-cut vision. Whatever I have seen. Since morning I am just running like anything and visiting all the polling stations and I have witnessed one thing and it is not a free election." 8. Paramilitary rangers watch as voters queue outside a polling station 9. Voters showing their national identification cards 10. Queue outside a polling station Multan 11. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) worker showing empty bullet shell 12. Angry PPP supporters burning chairs, tent and shouting 13. Protesters throwing stones at ruling party Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid group (PML-Q) poster 14. Various of people chanting outside the polling station 15. Protesters pulling down posters from electricity pole and tearing them up 16. Protesters holding PPP flags shouting and demonstrating around burning debris in street 17. Pakistan People's Party candidate, Abdul Qaidar Gillani, showing what he claims to be a fake identity card 18. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Abdul Qadir Gillani, Pakistan People's Party candidate: "All this rigging was done by the city district government, they misbehaved with women voters, snatched identity cards from their hands. All of the district government and its machinery is supporting them, all the rigging was done by the city district Nazim (mayor)." 19. Security personnel monitoring situation STORYLINE: Vote counting got under way Monday after a lacklustre turnout in Pakistan's parliamentary elections, which passed off relatively peacefully despite fears of sabotage by militants. With his future hanging in the balance, President Pervez Musharraf resolved to work with the new civilian government - widely tipped to be led by the party of his slain rival Benazir Bhutto. Polls closed at 1700 local time (1200 GMT), although voters standing in line were permitted to cast ballots. More than 470-thousand police and soldiers were deployed nationwide to provide security after a wave of suicide bombings, including the December 27 assassination of Bhutto that forced a six-week delay in the vote. No major attacks were reported but there was scattered violence between rival political factions. One voter claimed that she saw vote tampering taking place. "I have seen people rigging, rigging is going on like anything. People are just stamping without using the NIC (national identity card). It is not a free election, it is not a fair election," she said. Paramilitary rangers were called to a polling station in Karachi after allegations that supporters from Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) tried to disrupt proceedings. The rangers charged demonstrators and polling was restored after the brief disturbance. In the central city of Multan, hundreds of angry PPP supporters took to the streets to protest against what they claimed to be local ballot-rigging in favour of the ruling, pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid group's (PML-Q) candidate. They claimed that local authorities were complicit with the PML-Q, issuing fake identity cards to allow multiple votes to be fraudulently cast. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
