ISLAMABAD: “On election day, voting was assessed as well-conducted and transparent,” said Michael Gahler, chief observer of the EU Election Observation Mission (EUEOM), at a press conference in Islamabad on Friday.
However, Gahler raised the alarm about pre-election practices highlighting restrictions on the media, an uneven playing field for candidates, and a systematic effort to undermine the former ruling party.
“Although there were several legal provisions aimed at ensuring a level playing field, we have concluded that there was a lack of equality of opportunity,” he said.
Gahler said that numerous interlocutors acknowledged a systematic effort to “undermine the former ruling party through cases of corruption, contempt of court and terrorist charges against its leaders and candidates.”
“Media outlets and journalists suffered from restrictions, which resulted in extraordinary self-censorship,” he said. “This resulted in election coverage without impartial scrutiny.”
Both local and international election observers have expressed satisfaction with polling day arrangements.
Gahler said that while results were still pouring in from several constituencies, this would not damage the electoral process. He added that the international observers were not interested in the results but rather the electoral process.
The EUEOM deployed 120 observers on polling day across Pakistan — except Balochistan province due to security reasons. They visited 113 different constituencies, 582 polling stations and tabulation centers to observe the electoral process.
In the elections held on July 25, the party of former cricket star Imran Khan won a majority of seats to form a federal government. His opponents have, however, alleged massive rigging in the polls and rejected the results.
The preliminary statement released by the EUEOM said that a total of 11,855 candidates contested the elections, of which 55 percent stood as independents. “Some 4.8 percent of candidates were women,” it said.
The report pointed out that the legal requirement to nominate at least 5 percent of female candidates was not met by 7.4 percent of parties contesting the elections.
The July 25 polls mark the second consecutive democratic transition of power, addressing uncertainties over the future of democracy in Pakistan. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, voter turnout in the election was 55.8 percent. A total of 105.96 million registered voters used their right to franchise on the polling day.
Earlier in the day, the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) — a non-government organization based in Islamabad — also presented its election observation report and acknowledged “significant improvement” in the quality of electoral process.
The FAFEN has urged the ECP to conduct an inquiry into the allegations of rigging leveled by some major political parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. “Otherwise, the country may spiral into a phase of political and public protest and outcry that inhibits political stability,” it said.
The deployment of as many as 371,000 armed forces personnel on election duties, despite questions from some political parties, “ensured the peaceful conduct of election day amid heightened threats of subversive acts,” the report said.
It, however, pointed out that “some aspects of the pre-election environment and the vote-counting process present cause for concern that should be addressed.”
The FAFEN deployed a total of 19,683 trained, non-partisan observers to monitor the voting and counting process at 72,089 polling stations in 270 National Assembly constituencies, it said.
“The voting process on election day generally remained smooth,” the report concluded.
EU, international observers express satisfaction over Pakistan poll day preparations
EU, international observers express satisfaction over Pakistan poll day preparations
- Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) urged Pakistan’s Election Commission to conduct inquiry into allegations of rigging leveled by different political parties
- Gahler raised the alarm about pre-election practices highlighting restrictions on the media, an uneven playing field for candidates, and a systematic effort to undermine the former ruling party
Italian fashion designer Valentino dead at 93
ROME: Valentino Garavani, the jet-set Italian designer whose high-glamor gowns — often in his trademark shade of “Valentino red” — were fashion show staples for nearly half a century, has died at home in Rome, his foundation announced Monday. He was 93.
“Valentino Garavani was not only a constant guide and inspiration for all of us, but a true source of light, creativity and vision,″ the foundation said in a statement posted on social media.
His body will repose at the foundation’s headquarters in Rome on Wednesday and Thursday. The funeral will be held Friday at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica.
Universally known by his first name, Valentino was adored by generations of royals, first ladies and movie stars, from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Julia Roberts and Queen Rania of Jordan, who swore the designer always made them look and feel their best.
“I know what women want,” he once remarked. “They want to be beautiful.”
Never one for edginess or statement dressing, Valentino made precious few fashion faux-pas throughout his nearly half-century-long career, which stretched from his early days in Rome in the 1960s through to his retirement in 2008.
His fail-safe designs made Valentino the king of the red carpet, the go-to man for A-listers’ awards ceremony needs. His sumptuous gowns have graced countless Academy Awards, notably in 2001, when Roberts wore a vintage black and white column to accept her best actress statue. Cate Blanchett also wore Valentino — a one-shouldered number in butter-yellow silk — when she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2004.
Valentino was also behind the long-sleeved lace dress Jacqueline Kennedy wore for her wedding to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968. Kennedy and Valentino were close friends for decades, and for a spell the one-time US first lady wore almost exclusively Valentino.
He was also close to Diana, Princess of Wales, who often donned his sumptuous gowns.
Beyond his signature orange-tinged shade of red, other Valentino trademarks included bows, ruffles, lace and embroidery; in short, feminine, flirty embellishments that added to the dresses’ beauty and hence to that of the wearers.
Perpetually tanned and always impeccably dressed, Valentino shared the lifestyle of his jet-set patrons. In addition to his 152-foot (46-meter) yacht and an art collection including works by Picasso and Miro, the couturier owned a 17th-century chateau near Paris with a garden said to boast more than a million roses.
Valentino and his longtime partner Giancarlo Giammetti flitted among their homes — which also included places in New York, London, Rome, Capri and Gstaad, Switzerland — traveling with their pack of pugs. The pair regularly received A-list friends and patrons, including Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.
“When I see somebody and unfortunately she’s relaxed and running around in jogging trousers and without any makeup ... I feel very sorry,” the designer told RTL television in a 2007 interview. “For me, woman is like a beautiful, beautiful flower bouquet. She has always to be sensational, always to please, always to be perfect, always to please the husband, the lover, everybody. Because we are born to show ourselves always at our best.”
Valentino was born into a well-off family in the northern Italian town of Voghera on May 11, 1932. He said it was his childhood love of cinema that set him down the fashion path.
“I was crazy for silver screen, I was crazy for beauty, to see all those movie stars being sensation, well dressed, being always perfect,” he explained in the 2007 television interview.
After studying fashion in Milan and Paris, he spent much of the 1950s working for established Paris-based designer Jean Desses and later Guy Laroche before striking out on his own. He founded the house of Valentino on Rome’s Via Condotti in 1959.
From the beginning, Giammetti was by his side, handling the business aspect while Valentino used his natural charm to build a client base among the world’s rich and fabulous.
After some early financial setbacks — Valentino’s tastes were always lavish, and the company spent with abandon — the brand took off.
Early fans included Italian screen sirens Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren, as well as Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Legendary American Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland also took the young designer under her wing.
Over the years, Valentino’s empire expanded as the designer added ready-to-wear, menswear and accessories lines to his stable. Valentino and Giammetti sold the label to an Italian holding company for an estimated $300 million in 1998. Valentino would remain in a design role for another decade.
In 2007, the couturier feted his 45th anniversary in fashion with a 3-day-long blowout in Rome, capped with a grand ball in the Villa Borghese gallery.
Valentino retired in 2008 and was briefly replaced by fellow Italian Alessandra Facchinetti, who had stepped into Tom Ford’s shoes at Gucci before being sacked after two seasons.
Facchinetti’s tenure at Valentino proved equally short. As early as her first show for the label, rumors swirled that she was already on her way out, and just about one year after she was hired, Facchinetti was indeed replaced by two longtime accessories designers at the brand, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli.
Chiuri left to helm Dior in 2016, and Piccioli continued to lead the house through a golden period that drew on the launch of the Rockstud pump with Chiuri and his own signature color, a shade of fuchsia called Pink PP. He left the house in 2024, later joining Balenciaga, and has been replaced by Alessandro Michele, who revived Gucci’s stars with romantic, genderless styles.
Valentino is owned by Qatar’s Mayhoola, which controls a 70 percent stake, and the French luxury conglomerate Kering, which owns 30 percent with an option to take full control in 2028 or 2029. Richard Bellini was named CEO last September.
Valentino has been the subject of several retrospectives, including one at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, which is housed in a wing of Paris’ Louvre Museum. He was also the subject of a hit 2008 documentary, “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” that chronicled the end of his career in fashion.
In 2011, Valentino and Giammetti launched what they called a “virtual museum,” a free desktop application that allows viewers to feast their eyes on about 300 of the designer’s iconic pieces.
