Election officials hold as many as 152 meetings with stakeholders

The District Election Commissioners (DECs) in separate interviews indicate that they have held 152 meetings with various stakeholders in 57 districts across the country. According to the data collected by FAFEN observers, DECs held the highest number of meetings with district government officials (30%), followed by security officials (17%), and former MNAs/MPAs (15%). Fewer meetings were held with political parties, media, civil society or observers, says a press release issued on Thursday.
The Free and Fair Election Network's (FAFEN's) District Long-Term Observers (DLTOs) deployed across the country interviewed District Election Commissioners (DECs) between March 25 and April 1, 2013. The interviews with DECs were conducted in 31 districts of Punjab, 14 in Sindh, 9 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and one each in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Balochistan and Frontier Regions (FRs).
Observers asked the DECs about their meetings with election stakeholders, which are essential to ensure transparency, efficiency and accountability in local election administration. FAFEN has classified the electoral stakeholders who met with election officials into seven groups: civil society organisations, political parties, and district government officials, media, security officials, former Members of the National and Provincial Assemblies (MNAs/MPAs) and election observers' groups.
Based on interviews with election officials, FAFEN recommends that election officials should meet with all election stakeholders, including election observers and share the maximum possible information of public interest. Election officials should meet with representatives of all political parties and candidates on an equitable basis to avoid any perception of political bias. Election officials should meet with all relevant security departments to ensure security during the pre-election campaign period and Election Day.
DECs in 31 Punjab districts held 80 meetings with election stakeholders or about three stakeholder meetings per district, while DECs in 14 Sindh districts reported holding 23 meetings or fewer than two meetings per district. Nine DECs in KP conducted 38 meetings or just over four per district; nine stakeholder meetings were reported from one FATA Agency; and Balochistan and FR officials reported one stakeholder meeting each.
According to the data collected by FAFEN observers, DECs in 57 districts held the highest number of meetings with district government officials (46 out of 152 or 30%), followed by 25 (17%) meetings with security officials, 22 meetings (15%) with former MNAs/MPAs.
Another 21 meetings were held with political parties (14%), 18 (12%) with media representatives, 14 (9%) with civil society organisations and two each (1% each) with caretaker federal ministers, caretaker provincial ministers and international observers' groups. DECs in 31 Punjab districts stated that they held 80 meetings with various stakeholders or about three stakeholder meetings per district. A total of 23 (29%) of these meetings were with district government officials, followed by 16 (20%) with security officials, 14 (18%) with former MNAs/MPAs, 13 (16%) with media representatives, eight (10%) with political party representatives and six (7%) with civil society organisations.
Nine DECs in KP conducted 38 meetings with various election stakeholders, or just over four per district. About one-third of these meetings were with district government officials (11, or 29%), followed by former MNAs/MPAs, political parties and security officials (5 each, or 39% combined).
The DECs held three meetings (8%) each with media representatives and civil society organisations and two each (5%) with international observers' groups, caretaker federal ministers and caretaker provincial ministers. DECs in 14 Sindh districts reported holding 23 meetings with various electoral stakeholders or fewer than two meetings per district. As in Punjab, the highest number of meetings held by Sindh DECs were with district government officials (10, or 43%), followed by security officials (4, or 17%) and political party representatives (3, or 13%).
The DECs held two meetings each with former MNAs/MPAs, media representatives and civil society organisations. They held no meetings with caretaker federal ministers, caretaker provincial ministers or international observers' groups. Nine stakeholder meetings were reported in Kurram Agency (FATA). Of these, five (56%) meetings were held with political party representatives, two (22%) with civil society organisations and one each (11% each) with former MNAs and district government officials. FAFEN observers from Balochistan and the FRs reported one meeting each. A DEC in Balochistan met with district government officials, while a DEC in FR met with a civil society organisation.