The only real evidence of whether rigging has or has not taken place in the 2013 General Elections is in the polling station-wise vote counts (along with copies of Form 14) for every constituency. These are public documents and you have the right to access them.

What we all need to understand is that the fundamental, the most necessary election record for verification is Statement of Count called Form-14. This Form-14 (Statement of Count) when filled completely details the:

Total Registered Voters at the Polling Stations,
Male Vote,
Female Vote,
Vote Cast,
Vote Rejected and
Total Accepted Vote.

Form 15 & 16 prepared by Returning Officers (RO) that give the total result of a Constituency as to who has won is only a simple addition of all Form-14's received from all Polling Stations.

Each Constituency of National Assembly in Pakistan consisted of anywhere from 250-300 Polling Stations.

Each Polling Station was headed by a Presiding Officer designated by Election Commission. Who and who were appointed by Election Commission.

These were mostly officers of Education Department or Agriculture Dept. or such other provincial govt departments. Their "signatures" and "thumb impressions" are not only part of NADRA record but are also available from AGPR Office from where they draw their salaries.

Most Polling Stations have registered voters anywhere from 700 to 1500. So if Polling ends at 5pm, within 2-3 hours Form-14's are ready for distribution to Polling Agents and onward deposit to the Returning Officers.

At every Polling Station at the end of Voting, votes were counted within 2-3 hours supposedly in the presence of polling agents of several political parties. Presiding Officers by law issue Form-14 after signing on their names & titles, fixing their own thumb impression and writing CNIC. This constitutes a dully Filled Form-14. Form-14 is a Public Document;

There should be around 69-70,000 Form-14's for National Assembly and the same for Provincial Assemblies (since same Polling Stations were used) so around 138-139,000 Form-14s should be in possession of Election Commission. (ECP as per its own plan and commitment was supposed to put scanned copies of all these Form-14's on its Website but for reasons not explained it has not been able to do it, which itself is a very suspicious act and raises very difficult questions)

The idea is that Election Investigations is a fact finding mathematical job; this is not a legal or constitutional task. Legal and Constitutional issues are very secondary or tertiary in this task.

This explains why Election Tribunals are not of much help. Because in Election Tribunals allegations are being addressed or scrutinized as per law and procedure. Complainants are supposed to bring hard evidence of rigging which they often can not assemble on their own. And the issues keep on dragging.

So Election Tribunals - the way they are working - have limited application to this challenge of fact finding and determination of what happened. For example whole Town may have seen a murder but in a Pakistani court room it may still not be possible to prove that who killed whom. Election Tribunals unfortunately, the way they are constituted, also fall in the same category.

This also explains why PTI & Govt Negotiations are not reaching anywhere. PTI wants Constituency records (30 or more Constituencies) and documents, votes etc to be checked and scrutinized which is simple common sense of "fact finding". But PMLN & Allies term this as "Super Tribunals" and unconstitutional.

All political parties, media pundit and students of political science and Pakistan's international stake holders need to realize that given the doubts and controversy around Election 2013, any next elections in Pakistan will be meaningless unless the nature of irregularities of Election-2013 are resolved and lessons learnt for Electoral Reform.

Similarly Election Commissions recommendations for Electoral Reform and Electronic Voting etc are another waste of time since Electronic Voting can be doubly dangerous without creating institutions of integrity and the Members of current Election Commission have almost lost their trust in public eye.

The only real evidence of whether rigging has or has not taken place in the 2013 General Elections is in the polling station-wise vote counts (along with copies of Form 14) for every constituency.

Elections are the only reliable instrument for a "Transition of Power" in a democracy.

Future of Democracy in Pakistan is at threat not because of protests but because Elections-2013 are most controversial since 1977.

Significant sections of Pakistani population have lost trust in that exercise and there won't be any trust in a future elections without resolving these issues.

If you agree with the above then sign the petition to force ECP to release FORM 14, 15 16 & 17 to their website immediately, as this is our fundamental & democratic right.

Kind Regards

A Pakistani