Ahead of congressional hearing, US worried over Pakistan ‘electoral abuse’
Al Jazeera
Donald Lu, a senior State Department official, made the comments in written testimony. Pakistan has denied allegations of electoral fraud.
Islamabad, Pakistan – A senior United States Department of State official has described Washington’s concerns over “electoral abuse and violence” in the lead-up to Pakistan’s general election last month in written testimony submitted a day before a congressional hearing about relations between the two nations.
Donald Lu, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, said President Joe Biden’s administration identified a series of “irregularities” in the conduct of the February 8 elections as he emphasised the importance of ties between Washington and Islamabad.
A subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the US House of Representatives is holding a hearing on the “future of democracy in Pakistan and the US-Pakistan relationship” on Wednesday. The hearing was announced last week after more than 30 members of Congress wrote to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asking them not to recognise Pakistan’s new government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The February 8 elections were marred by widespread allegations of electoral manipulation, unusually delayed results and rigging.
The State Department had voiced concerns over the elections at the time, but Pakistan has consistently denied the allegations. After criticism from the West, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 10 said it was surprised by the reactions, which failed to “acknowledge the free and enthusiastic exercise of the right to vote by tens of millions of Pakistanis”.
Lu’s comments before the congressional hearing, however, “drill down a bit deeper” on those previous comments, the US diplomat said.
