Legitimizing a Military Dictatorship: The Referendums and General Elections of Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq

Abstract

When a dictator begins to lose legitimacy, they try framing themselves as democrats. This paper explores how two military dictators in Pakistan- Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq - attempted to strategi- cally use the electoral process to legitimize their regimes. Guided by Carl J. Friedrich’s definition of legitimacy, the paper comparatively analyzes Ayub Khan’s 1960 referendum and 1965 elections as well as Zia ul Haq’s 1984 referendum and 1985 elections. This is done by contextualizing the regimes’ desper- ations for legitimacy that led to the referen- dum/elections, narrating the events of the polling exercise and then evaluating how it affected public perceptions of legitimacy and, in turn, the power of the two leaders. Accordingly, the paper relies on primary sources (interviews, newspaper articles and speeches) as well as secondary sources (research papers, journals and books) to provide a broader understanding of the two leaders’ electoral maneu- vers. Ultimately, the paper concludes that both Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq failed to legitimize their rules through their manipulated referendums and general elections; however, Ayub Khan was able to maintain a firmer control of state affairs during this process than Zia ul Haq.