Pakistan and the Anatomy of a Rigged Election

What’s happening: When Pakistan held elections earlier this year, jailed populist Imran Khan’s party came in first. However, it did not secure enough seats to control the government after the anti-Khan establishment rigged the vote.

Why it matters: Pakistan’s election is a textbook example of methods used to steal elections — and a warning to the world about an establishment gone wild.

• All-but-banned parties: Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was not formally banned. But it was threatened with a ban, a common tactic establishments use to force populists into compliance. So, PTI ran “independent” candidates allied with the party, diminishing its formal numbers.

• Banned symbols: The Supreme Court banned PTI’s party symbol — an image of a cricket bat. (Khan is a former cricket player.) Due to Pakistan’s high illiteracy rates, symbols help voters identify a party. So, symbol bans crippled PTI’s ability to campaign; its independent candidates had to choose different symbols, decreasing recognizability.

• Media censorship: Journalists reported being contacted prior to the election by members of the military with instructions not to discuss Khan’s party or use its symbols. Many journalists were intimidated into complying.

Most importantly: State-sanctioned voter fraud was also at play. In one of Pakistan’s largest cities, a commissioner admitted to changing vote counts so that pro-Khan independent candidates — who were winning by about 70,000 votes — lost the election.

• Total blackout: The government suspended phone and internet service on election day, purportedly to “maintain … law and order.” The move was criticized as an attempt to prevent election observers from documenting fraud.