National Assembly's Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs has planned to arrange a session with all the stakeholders to discuss electoral reforms and 49 proposals recommended by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
However, the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has described the Election Commission's electoral proposals as 'cosmetic', arguing that these would not reform complex legal and administrative edifice of the electoral process.
In its commentary on the ECP's proposals, a network of over 30 NGOs, Fafen, observed that the proposed electoral reforms were in fact small amendments to the electoral process, lacking reform vision. Fafen urged the ECP to restart consultation process in this connection.
It proposed formation of a parliamentary committee on electoral reforms to consolidate, clarify and improve the election laws in order to ensure the independent functioning of the Election Commission. However, ECP Secretary, Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, when contacted, defended the reforms and said they had proposed a number of fundamental recommendations to improve the poll system.
He said if Fafen had some useful ideas, these could be presented to National Assembly's Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, as it planned to arrange a session with all the stakeholders at an appropriate time. In reply to a question, Kanwar Dilshad made it clear that several proposals aired by various stakeholders had been incorporated in the ECP package.
"An election system inspiring public confidence is critical for strengthening democracy in the country. The existing legal and administrative system for the conduct of elections is inadequate to meet internationally accepted standards of electoral freedom, fairness, neutrality and transparency," Fafen noted.
The system, it emphasised, needed comprehensive reforms to enhance the quality of future elections as a prerequisite for democracy to take firm roots. The proposals submitted to the prime minister on March 11 this year lacked vision to address critical legal and administrative issues to raise the standard of electoral process, the Fafen report said.
These proposals with the exception of the one dealing with candidates contesting in multiple constituencies did not qualify as electoral reforms, but rather were an effort to correct minor errors and make cosmetic alterations to the existing legal and administrative framework governing elections, it maintained.
The ECP reforms, it pointed out, failed to take into account most of the recommendations forwarded to it by various stakeholders, including political parties as well as national and international election observation groups, despite promises and commitments. It emphasised that adequate powers should be given to the ECP to take action against partisan caretaker and local government officials to enforce all election laws.
The election laws and regulations should include specific provisions to protect and empower presiding officers to use their magistrate first class powers to ensure law and order on the election day, it proposed. The election law should strengthen provincial election commissioners and district assistant election commissioners to enable them to support presiding officers in their efforts to bring about security and law and order at the polling stations. Presiding officers must be empowered to limit the entry of unconcerned people to the polling stations.
"ECP officials, rather than judicial officers, should be responsible for vote consolidation at constituency level. Judges should be responsible only for hearing challenges to the ballot consolidation process, along with other election petitions regarding election results."
The ECP's proposed electoral reforms do not provide an overall vision to reform the complex legal and administrative structure of the electoral process, as is required.
Instead, the ECP report suggested 49 small amendments to the electoral process. For instance, section 85 on page 58 proposes that the radius for prohibition of canvassing in or near polling stations should be changed from yards to meters (ie from 400 yards to 350 metres). While the report focuses on such small details, it entirely neglects major issues of importance to the electoral process, such as the validity of the electoral roll, the report said. "It is inconceivable that a one-year electoral reform effort could fail to put forward a clear procedure for verifying, rectifying, and updating the voters' list on a regular basis and before each election," Fafen observed.
The ECP report touched upon many topics and suggested minor adjustments to many laws. Yet the cumulative effect of the proposals was profoundly incomplete and did not provide a holistic vision of reforms that integrated and rationalised many laws and regulations relevant to elections. National and international stakeholders had offered comprehensive recommendations that had apparently been ignored, Fafen noted. The report also said the proposals also could not suggest recommendations for changes in the law and the policy, which were vital to fortify the independence of the Election Commission.