Claims of rigging — a familiar story for Pakistan
By Amel Ghani
The Pakistani Twitterati stayed up all night, posting pithy commentary as Americans went out to vote early on Election Day.
The U.S. elections dominated both mainstream and social media in Pakistan, where there has been robust debate on U.S.-Pakistan relations in the post-Obama era. Raza Rumi, a columnist writing for the Dawn newspaper, summed up the consensus: “ U.S. policy will, in all probability, be tougher and more conditional than before.
Most Pakistani politicians stayed away from election commentary. One exception was Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who expressed his support for Hillary Clinton. The young Bhutto is co-chair of the Pakistan People’s Party, the majority party in Sindh province.
Human Rights activists and journalists also supported Clinton, some of them drawing comparisons between her and Benazir Bhutto.
More ordinary Twitter users, however, were more interested in something familiar to Pakistani voters: accusations of election rigging.
In the 2013 parliamentary elections, prime ministerial hopeful Imran Khan accused the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), of rigging the count. In August 2014, Khan began a four-month sit-in outside the parliament building in Islamabad, the capital.
The picture shows Khan with his party-mate Naeem ul Haque. The tweet reads, “Tell the truth, you gave Trump the formula to lose and cry rigging, right?”
And then there were these gems being shared all over social media, showing both Trump and Clinton as they would have appeared in typical Pakistani election posters.
“Come lets make a strong America, If God wills President Hillary Clinton (wife of Former President Bill Clinton)”
