COG's Election Oversight In Pakistan Viewed As Whitewashing Fraud: Report

(MENAFN- IANS) London, Sep 29 (IANS) The role of the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) in monitoring Pakistan's February 2024 elections was widely perceived as an attempt to whitewash electoral fraud in Pakistan and suppress the findings of its own report, a report cited on Monday.

It added that the Commonwealth, an association largely comprising the former British colonies, was established to promote and uphold democratic practices, yet it acted to shield a government that had secured power through a rigged election.

"When Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey settled into her new role as Secretary General of the Commonwealth Observer Group, she discovered she'd been handed a rather difficult diplomatic dilemma. She was now leading an election integrity organisation that was directly complicit in covering up rampant election fraud. Her predecessor, Patricia Scotland, had overseen the observation of the February 8, 2024 elections in Pakistan, which saw widespread and undeniable irregularities that clearly swayed the election away from the party of Imran Khan," a report by Washington-based investigative news outlet 'Drop Site' detailed.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, the report said that before leaving office in March 2025, Scotland came under intense pressure from the member states, the Pakistani media, and those involved with COG's election report to release it.

"Scotland was expected to release the report as one of her final acts. But after a meeting with a top Pakistani official, who is said to have warned her that the release of the report could lead to instability in the country, Scotland, who enjoyed close personal ties to Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, decided to leave the problem in the inbox of her successor," it stated.

According to the report, during a meeting at Marlborough House in London in late August, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Botchwey, told Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar that she did not intend to release the COG's findings and acknowledge the negative implications for the Pakistani government if she did. Having inherited the problem from her predecessor, Scotland, it said, Botchwey was now assuming full ownership of it

The report emphasised that the rigged election in February 2024 followed a military-orchestrated no-confidence vote that removed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan from power.

"Khan had fallen out with the military, as well as the US and European Union, over his vociferous criticisms of the US foreign policy in the region, as well as his refusal to align with their policy on the conflict in Ukraine," the report noted.

"But democracy in Pakistan has reached one of the lowest points since the formation of the country. Widespread suppression of opposition parties, including via arrests, disappearances, torture, transnational repression, and other means have been used as tools to shore up the military's grip on power,” it added.

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