Members of civil society organisation at a seminar have highlighted the bottlenecks in the mechanism for resolution of election related disputes, and stressed the need of amendments in the existing mechanisms for making more effective the elections dispute resolution process.
The post-election seminar titled "Elections Disputes Resolution (EDR) and Reforms" held under auspices of Pak Everbright Development Organisation (PEDO) - a non-governmental organisation - here at the Press Club on Saturday. Notable speakers were included Israr Ahmad, the organisation consultant; Executive Director Pedo Muhibullah Khan; Khan Tanveer Roheela Advocate, a losing candidate from PK-2, representatives from different NGOs, legal experts and others.
While speaking on the occasion, Khalid Roheela Advocate complained that the Election Commission had failed to take action against the complaints regarding rigging in the current general elections. He explained that the voters had faced numerous difficulties due to poor arrangements on the polling day. Roheela said incorrect symbols of most of independent candidates were placed on electoral ballots, adding that ECP had failed to free, fair and transparent election, saying election result was engineered in constituency NA-1 and PK-2.
Israr Ahmad, while explaining various bottleneck and obstacles in mechanism of EDR, said the ECP had not posted polling schemes at their website that caused huge difficulties for voters on the Election Day. He informed that ECP had constituted 14 tribunals for amicable resolution of election-related complaints, but he regretted that a number of complaints were still in pending due to certain issues.
Similarly, he said no specific period was mentioned to resolve disputes and clear complaints in the mechanism of ERD. He held the bureaucracy responsible for prolonged pending of complaints related to pre and post elections. He suggested that elections tribunal should be equally treated and need to publicise it. Pedo Executive Director Muhibullah also spoke on the occasion.
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