Old and New Media: Converging During the Pakistan Emergency (March 2007-February 2008)

6. New Media and Citizenship

February 18, 2008: General election in Pakistan

After Bhutto’s assassination, general elections, initially scheduled for January 2008, were postponed until February 18, 2008. It was widely understood that the outcome of the elections would be pivotal for restoring democratic norms in Pakistan. After all, since the official election period began in November 2007, Pakistanis had seen the independent judiciary dismissed and the constitution undermined emergency rule. They had also seen their most popular politician, Bhutto, assassinated. While Pakistanis struggled to imagine who could possibly replace Bhutto--a shoo-in to be elected to her third term as prime minister--they were adamant that the decision be theirs alone, as reflected in a free and fair election.

However, in the run-up to the election it became clear that election rigging and campaign misconduct were rampant. On February 12, the New York-based Human Rights Watch reported that the Pakistani election commission charged with managing polling was under the control of pro-Musharraf officials.[65] Opposition politicians across the country complained that the police and representatives of Musharraf’s governing party were harassing them, illegally removing their billboards and banners, and obstructing their campaign rallies. Citizens demonstrating support for any other than the ruling party were either being intimidated by police into changing their vote or bribed.

After being subject to new restrictions during emergency rule, the mainstream media was in no position to expose these dire circumstances. Journalists, particularly those in rural areas, reported that they were being prevented from covering news stories and campaign rallies, threatened with arrest, and regularly having their equipment confiscated. The mainstream broadcast media, meanwhile, was prohibited from covering election rallies and protests and from airing live news broadcasts, live call-in shows, or live talk shows.[66] Moreover, the government kept specific restrictions on election coverage deliberately vague in order to put the onus of caution and restraint on media outlets.

To drive home the point that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) would be scrutinizing the appropriateness of election coverage, cable operators in the Punjab province, Pakistan’s most populous, were asked to block broadcasts of the independent news channel Aaj TV for almost 12 hours on February 6. This censorship took effect after a talk show broadcast by the channel featured a journalist who had been banned by Musharraf from appearing on television in the wake of the emergency. As a result of these measures, Pakistanis were aware that the media would not be able to report promptly on whether proper voting procedures were followed on election day.

6.1. Mailing Lists, Monitors, and Mobilization

In this environment, citizen journalists took it upon themselves to monitor the elections armed with little more than camera phones. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), an independent coalition of non-governmental organizations, enlisted over 20,000 civilians to observe polling stations and pre-election campaigning in more than 250 election zones. Such recruitment was unprecedented in FAFEN’s history. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, the executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, another election monitoring group, said, "Never before has there been such large-scale mobilization for a Pakistani election…. The role civil society is playing has been a real positive."[67]

No doubt, Musharraf’s actions in the months leading up to the election--the declaration of emergency and the dismissal of the independent judiciary--motivated much of this civic engagement. But an active online movement coordinated and implemented via new media platforms played a vital role in mobilizing Pakistanis in record numbers.

Mailing lists became the main form of communication between activists and Pakistanis in the days before the election. Samad Khurram, the manager of The Emergency Times mailing list, which at the time of the election boasted over 50,000 recipients, explained that mailing lists had particular appeal because content circulated remained among existing networks of trust. Since the goal was to organize the surreptitious monitoring of the polls by civilians, Khurram pointed out, it would make little sense to use a more open and accessible media platform such as YouTube or a blog. Activists learned the hard way during emergency rule that pro-Musharraf officials and security personnel would monitor new media content, particularly Flickr images and YouTube video clips, to identify and arrest protestors and democracy advocates. Relying on similar platforms during the election would have made volunteer monitors targets for harassment by election commission delegates and police officers.

On the most basic level, messages circulated on mailing lists encouraged voters to beware rigging. The following is the text of an email circulated by the Concerned Citizens of Pakistan, a "non-partisan, non-political group" on February 16:

Be vigilant against rigging. Find your polling station and your name in the voter’s list a day before the election. Arrive early, cast your vote yourself according to your conscience for honest candidates who promise to restore the judiciary and to work for a peaceful, democratic Pakistan.

Messages containing Human Rights Watch and FAFEN updates about the extent of election rigging were also forwarded through mailing lists.

Closer to the election, democracy advocates circulated specific requests for volunteer monitors that included calls for action as well as logistical details about how, where, and when to monitor polling. For example, on February 17, the Students Action Committee (SAC) put out a call for volunteers on The Emergency Times mailing list. The email clarified that volunteers were needed for electoral monitoring between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on February 18 in the Lahore-based constituency of politician Monis Elahi. The email explained that the SAC was compiling a 20-page paper documenting "electoral irregularities as well as the impressions of various students about the electoral process of 2008," and asked that volunteers submit one-page reports on their findings. The message also included a list of ‘irregularities’ that youth monitors should remain aware of and pointed those interested to external websites managed by non-governmental organizations and the official election commission that detailed Pakistani voting protocol.

It is important to note that activist groups did not rely on mailing lists alone to mobilize Pakistanis on election day. Each email included a cellphone number that volunteers could contact via SMS text messages with questions and to indicate the specific timeslots during which they were available to monitor polling. In most cases, emails included short messages that were meant to be copied and further circulated via SMS text message. The parallel use of SMS text messages allowed activists to reach a wider audience while continuing to keep information about their monitoring activities restricted to trusted recipients.

On the day after the election, activist groups and volunteer monitors used the mailing lists to distribute their observations from the polling booths. First-hand accounts of election rigging at specific polling stations were widely circulated by civilian monitors. For example, on February 19, Ahmed Mustafa, a student at the Sindh Muslim Law College in Karachi sent out the following email with the subject "100% rigging at polling station NA250 and NA24":

I was … on my field visits [at]

polling station of SM Law College NA250. Presiding officer stamped 400 fake ballot papers in favor of [political party] MQM in front of our team…. When we approached NA 242 in Federal B. Area, people said that when they entered the polling booth to cast votes, a person with a badge of the MQM blocked everyone and snatched [their] ballot papers.

Mainstream media journalists and non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch used such brief emails to evaluate the prevalence of election rigging.

6.2. Live Blogging the Vote

Although mailing lists were the preferred form of communication on election day, bloggers remained active in providing election coverage. In the run-up to voting, bloggers were regularly posting links to news reports about election rigging, voter intimidation, recommendations from international monitoring committees, and articles from the international print media analyzing the importance of the February 2008 elections. For example, on February 16, The Emergency Times blog ran a transcript of a phone call in which Pakistan’s attorney general admits that the upcoming elections will be "massively rigged." The post included an audio clip of the phone conversation as well as background information about the attorney general and his political biases.[68]

Meanwhile, NaiTazi--with its slogan "Pakistani news. Powered by You!"--emerged as a leading source of information during election week. The blog featured comments by prominent journalists and news anchors against the government’s restrictions on the media.[69] It also posted helpful analyses of previous elections and voting trends to orient young voters, who in many cases were heading to the polls for the first time in this historic election. For example, a post titled "Karachi: MQM sets yes on 18 out of 20 [National Assembly]

seats from Karachi", uploaded on February 15, documented the electoral success of a prominent, Karachi-based political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The post included details about the party’s campaign tactics, popularity level by location, and past performance when in office.[70]

On election day, bloggers were providing updates about polling results as they came in through the mainstream media, particularly independent news channels. The Teeth Maestro blog, for example, posted an update about which political parties were leading in the polls and included a summary about each party’s stance with regards to seminal issues such as the restoration of the judiciary.[71]

Some took their coverage a step further: the usually tongue-in-cheek, news analysis blog Chapati Mystery maintained a live blog that posted election results as they were officially announced, links to live online feeds from news channels, brief--and characteristically sarcastic--news analysis and commentary, and discussion between bloggers about the credentials of particular winning politicians.[72]

More importantly, many young voters turned to popular blogs to post descriptions of their polling experience and, often, expose election rigging. For example, midway through election day, a student at the PECHS Girls College in Karachi documented explicit rigging at the NA251 polling station on the Teeth Maestro blog.[73] Her account described several irregularities in the way polling was being conducted as well as a ballot-stuffing incident. The post generated several responses that either discounted claims of election rigging at the same polling station or described similar election rigging efforts at polling stations in the jurisdictions of rival political parties.

6.3. YouTube and SMS Text Messaging: Motivating Civic Action

In addition to blogs, YouTube was used in innovative ways to mobilize Pakistanis. Since calls for civilian election monitoring could not be broadcast online, leading activists uploaded inspirational messages and mission statements to inspire action. For example, Aitzaz Ahsan, the head of the Pakistan Bar Association and leader of the movement for the restoration of an independent judiciary, posted a series of original poems, recited by himself, to YouTube. One poem, titled "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" and posted on February 14, traced the history of Pakistan’s democratic aspirations and civil society movements against the army and other forms of oppression.[74]

Mediated civic engagement was not restricted to activists, citizen journalists, and civilian monitors alone. On election day, average voters used SMS text messages to urge their friends, family, and colleagues to vote. One SMS that was widely circulated on the morning of the elections read: "With the elections, lets all light a flame of hope, that we will not let Pakistan be destroyed by people who are not part of us." Moreover, SMS text messages were used to counter widespread fear that there would be violence and bomb blasts at polling stations. For example, confident after casting her vote that there was no security threat at her appointed polling station, Tabassum Saigol, a Karachi-based voter, text messaged everyone in her cellphone directory. She assured them that the streets were safe, the polling stations well-guarded, and the voting process straightforward and efficient.

Sadly, despite such efforts, the 44.5 percent voter turnout remained lower than the 45% registered during the previous general elections in 2002. The use of new mobilizing tools was offset by a greater fear of violence. But there was a significant civic media success story: the civilian monitoring efforts proved that new media platforms could be used efficiently to coordinate civic action by specific communities.