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ECP draws up ambitious plan for next 5 years

July 12, 2014 at 9:03 pm | News Desk

Kunza Raja

It is good that all political parties in Pakistan realise the need to reform the electoral process in Pakistan and pursuing the government for the same. The prime minister has already taken initiative to constitute a special parliamentary committee comprising members of the two houses of parliament to take up the issue of electoral reforms. However, most of the reforms deemed by political parties are already on agenda of Election Commission of Pakistan. The implementation on these reforms will need complete backing of the parliament as it will also require amendments in pertaining laws.

A significant reforms were implemented by the Election Commission during the general election of May 2013 under its first Five-Year Strategic Plan (2010-2014). These reforms include introduction of a photographic electoral roll with National Identity Card (NIC) numbers of all voters, SMS service was introduced to assist voters to learn their registration status and voting detail, separate codes of conduct were introduced for media, polling personnel, security personnel, election observers and political parties. Under its first five year plan, the Election Commission has already conducted a feasibility study on use of electronic voting machines (EVM) and demonstrations were organized for political parties. Moreover, the ECP also completed the unification of election laws and recommended important areas for legislation to the government before the next general elections. Overall, the ECP achieved 80 percent of the targets set by the first five year plan.

Building on the success of first five year plan, the ECP has already unveiled its Second Five Year Strategic Plan covering the period from 2014 to 2018.

The Second Five-Year Plan comprises of 162 objectives grouped under 13 broader goals, is a comprehensive reform agenda. Amongst many others, the plan covers most of the demands of political parties for electro reforms, including use of electronic voting machines (EVM), biometric voter identification and delimitation of constituencies through the Geographic Information System (GIS).

The digital vote

Under the new strategic plan, the election authorities will use EVMs as a pilot project in the by-elections this year. The commission plans to roll out these machines throughout the country by mid-2017 so that they can be used in the next general elections due in 2018.

Before introducing the digital vote, the parliament needs to make amendments in the Representation of Peoples Act (ROPA) 1976 and would have to amend clauses pertaining to the procedure to cast the vote in the ROPA.

It is estimated that each EVM at the current rate would cost around Rs40,000. The ECP would need around 200,000 such machines for the next general polls – at least one for each polling booth. ECP officials said they want to procure EVMs that should have an inbuilt biometric voter identification system.

Delimiting constituencies

To avoid gerrymandering – the practice of drawing boundaries of constituencies to establish political advantage for a group, the ECP plans to delimit constituencies by using the Geographical Information System (GIS). However, new delimitations are conditional to a fresh population census, which is due since 2008. ECP in its strategic plan has once again asked the government to complete fresh census by next year.

The national and provincial assembly constituencies were delimited in 2002 on the basis of the 1998 population census. The 2008 general elections and the 2013 polls were conducted on the basis of 2002 delimitations. New census would result into increase of number of seats in the legislatives in accordance with the ratio of population increase.

A more autonomous body

In its proposed plan, the ECP has sought more financial and administrative autonomy – an ambitious demand that would again depend on the will of the Parliament. The election authorities want to have a complete control over the conduct of the polls to ensure that their orders are properly implemented.

Government officials on election duties

In its new plan, the ECP has decided to make a permanent pool of government officials to perform election duties. These officials from various federal and provincial departments would be given training, while the ECP also plans to develop mechanisms to evaluate the performance these officials.

Similarly, ECP plans to set up proper offices of its own in every district, fully equipped with human and financial resources. Currently, ECP hires services of different government departments, mostly teachers, for election duties and other election related matters including enumeration of voters.

Campaign finance

The draft reforms package also delineated proposals to improve the system of political finance where every registered political party would have to make sure that they conduct all their activities through a bank account and records of these would be shared with the commission.

Gender issues

The plan also proposes various measures to increase participation of women in the electoral process.

Moreover, the ECP will also explore operational details if overseas Pakistanis can be provided the right to vote for their home constituencies from abroad, legislation and better operational methodologies for internally displaced persons (IDP) voting for their home constituencies, gender mainstreaming in electoral processes and across the organization, etc. The ECP also plans to review the draft of the unified election laws and recommend improvements on the basis of work already done and learning from the 2013 General Elections.

The strategic vision of the ECP is more result-oriented than activity-centred. It feels itself accountable to the Pakistani nation for its actions and will strive hard to achieve the cherished goal of winning their complete trust.

 

News Desk

Economic Affairs Editor

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