'February 18 vote critical step towards democratisation'

Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan, Kanwar Muhammed Dilshad has said that February 18 elections were a critical step in Pakistan's progress toward democratisation.
"The political parties and international observers accepted the results and found them credible," he said while addressing the Provincial Review Workshop organised by Support for National Elections in Pakistan at a hotel here on Saturday.
These elections, Kanwar Dilshad pointed out, have laid a foundation for a true and strong democracy for this country and Pakistan will continue to play its important role for peace and progress in the region.
Pointing out that elections met the basic threshold of credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of Pakistani people, he said democracy is a process of self-correction and each election produces new hope, new possibilities, new trust and new confidence.
The Election Commission of Pakistan, he said, encouraged and facilitated the local and international observers to monitor the elections and experience has shown that credible and impartial observers can strengthen an electoral process by ensuring that voters, election officials and political parties follow established voting and vote counting procedures.
Secretary ECP said women's significant participation in the election was a concrete step. Women not only secured the reserved seats but also contested and won general seats to reach Parliament. On an average 75 percent of political parties supported their women candidates in election activities.
Kanwar Dilshad said Election Commission of Pakistan, with the assistance of UNDP and USAID, used modern electoral commodities and adopted internationally practised techniques for the training of polling personnel including ROs and DROs. ECP engaged the civil society organisations to create awareness among the masses about the electoral processes and importance of democracy. Various sessions were conducted by the NOGs in partnership with ECP on voter education. This resulted in the increase of voter turnout.
He said all the major stakeholders including general public, political parties, media and civil society organisations appreciated the positive steps of ECP including availability of voters list, details of polling stations, information material for observers, guidelines and election processes related materials and election complaint data on its web-site.