EU Ambassador Jean-François Cautain met on Saturday with Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister of Pakistan and on Monday with Honourable Justice Sardar Raza, Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan. In the meetings the Ambassador handed over the final report on the EU Electoral Follow-up Mission (EFM), which visited Pakistan in February 2016 to discuss the electoral reform process with key stakeholders, based on the fifty recommendations of the EU election observation mission, which was deployed for the May 2013 parliamentary elections.
The Ambassador reiterated the EU's strong support to democracy and electoral reform in Pakistan, evidenced by the participation of EU Election Observation Missions in the last three parliamentary elections and extensive support to the Parliament and to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
He welcomed the establishment of the electoral reform committee, but stressed the need to implement necessary reforms to promote more inclusive, credible and transparent elections in time before the next elections in 2018. The main issues covered in the EFM report were discussed, including the link between commitments under GSP+ and electoral reform, the need to ensure full representation in the elections of women and minorities, constituency delimitation based on updated census data and the need to improve voter registration and strengthen the capacity of the Election Commission..-PR
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