Elections Sans Democracy
The election results in Pakistan have brought a mix of surprise and predictability. While there was anticipation for the success of the PTI, led by the imprisoned Imran Khan, many doubted its chances after being barred from contesting as a party and losing its bat symbol. However, against all odds, PTI-backed independents with symbols like eggplants, lions, and hookahs secured the highest number of seats.
Khan's pursuit of power in Pakistan has hit a roadblock as the authorities anticipated and prevented party-less independents from forming the government. The irony lies in the fact that the party with a significant share of seats, despite electoral irregularities, will now sit in the opposition, while those benefiting from irregularities will govern.
What was the point of this elaborate exercise then? A more pertinent question would be what is the point of democracy if it can be so effortlessly and blatantly compromised. And this isn’t just true of Pakistan but of most third world countries. And there are several forms this rigging can take. It can start with pandering to the base instincts of a substantial section of a people, comprising pentup prejudices, hatreds, a will to dominate minorities etc to playing to imagined historical resentments or harking back to a mythical glorified ancient past. It can also take the form of subsidy or token freebies extended to a vast majority of poor people as a welfarist measure, who then vote for the benefactor party purely out of consideration to retain the help, which they otherwise are made to fear they will lose. Similarly, the ruling parties can also resort to suborning of the media and subverting of the institutions to ensure peddling of helpful narratives and myths as well as silencing of the opposition.
In Pakistan’s case, the attempt to rig the system has been brazen and direct, with little nod to any subtlety A leader who obviously commands the support of a vast majority of people and who, therefore, should have been presiding over the destiny of the country in a democratic set up has been jailed, and his party taken apart, deprived even of its symbol. Its leaders took part in the election as independent candidates under different symbols and despite credible allegations of interference with the voting process, still won the largest number of seats. But the party doesn’t get the invite to form the government on technical reasons - since it has been reduced to a group of independent candidates. The unpopular parties who won many of their seats largely through institutional help are getting to form the government.
This reveals a sordid reality about the operation of democracy outside the west, its birthplace: a powerful ruling party or a powerful institution as in the case of Pakistan can take a country through the motions of a democratic operation only to ensure a premeditated outcome. Advancing communications technology has made it even easier. Far from empowering masses which it was earlier billed to have done, it has disproportionately empowered the governments, almost enabling them to act God-like. Public opinion can now be shaped or manipulated on a far greater scale than ever before through misinformation and disinformation peddled systematically on formal and social media. So much so that the governments can now hone a public opinion according to their conveniences. This, in turn, influences the public reaction to day to day events. And in its most consequential fallout, even the outcome of elections. Former US president Donald Trump’s election as the US president in 2016 is believed to have similarly been maneuvered remotely by Russia. However, in a highly literate society such as the US, people have a higher ability to see through fake information, a factor that played a decisive role in Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, despite his violent effort to overturn the outcome.
But this is generally not the case in our part of the world, where closely networked elites acquire a vice-like grip over the power structure and go on perpetuating it by fair means or foul. And swathes of the deprived and poor don't understand the language of rights, and are too weak to take the elites on. Another factor is that the people have lived for centuries under feudal systems and consider elites as their benefactors.
Crisis of democracy has only become deeper, and as Trump's advent in the US shows, its repercussions are being felt in the west also. One conspicuous feature of this failing is that it has increasingly come to disempower minorities. In their short-cut pursuit of power, leaders seek to forge the majority community into a monolithic community by directing their anger against the minorities. This state of affairs is only getting worse by the day, with brazen attempts being made to make the minorities’ way of life subservient to that of the majority community. This needs urgent addressing if democracy is to survive as a form of government that gives both the individuals and the communities a say and a stake in the governance.
in the fact that the party with a significant share of seats, despite electoral irregularities, will now sit in the opposition, while those benefiting from irregularities will govern
Khan's pursuit of power in Pakistan has hit a roadblock as the authorities anticipated and prevented partyless independents from forming the government. The irony lies in the fact that the party with a significant share of seats, despite electoral irregularities, will now sit in the opposition, while those benefiting from irregularities will govern.