Intra-party elections mandatory to contest Oct 10 polls
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, July 11: The Election Commission announced on Thursday that any political party failing to provide a certificate of its intra-party election and audit reports — showing expenses and sources of its income — would not be allotted symbol in the forthcoming general election.
In an official announcement, the EC stated that “any political party or combination of political parties which contravenes the provision of Article 12 or 13, shall not be entitled to obtain an election symbol for election to the Majlis-e-Shoora or Provincial Assemblies”.
The EC stated that under Article 4 of the recently promulgated Political Parties Order, 2002, political parties were required to provide a copy of their constitution to the Election Commission, which should include inter alia, “aims and objectives of the party, its organizational structure at the federal, provincial and local levels; criteria for the party membership, membership fee to be paid by the members; qualifications and tenure of the party leader and other office-bearers, criteria for receipt and collection of funds for the party; election of the party leader and office-bearers at federal, provincial and local levels; selection or nomination of candidates for election to public offices/legislative bodies; resolution of disputes between members and party, including issues relating to suspension and expulsion of members; and method and manner of amendments to the constitution of the party.”
Under Article 12 of PPO, the leader of each political party shall, within seven days from completion of the intra-party elections, submit a certificate under his signatures to the EC containing the information, i.e. the date of the last intra-party elections, the names, designations and addresses of the party leader and all other office-bearers elected at the federal, provincial and local levels, the election results, including the total number of votes cast and the number of votes secured by each contestant for all of its party offices and a copy of the party’s notifications declaring results of the election.
The EC pointed out that under Article 13 every political party was required to submit to the election commission on the prescribed form, within sixty days from the close of each financial year, a consolidated statement of accounts of the party audited by a chartered accountant containing annual income and expenses, sources of its funds and assets and liabilities with a certificate that no funds from any source prohibited under the PPO were received by the party and that the statement contained an accurate financial position of party.
The announcement said Article 17(1) of the PPO provided that every political party desiring to take part in the general election, 2002, shall be required to complete its intra-party elections referred to in Article 11 in accordance with the party constitution and PPO by Aug 5, 2002 and submit a certificate to the EC.
According to clause (2) of Article 17, a political party, which has already completed intra-party election, as far as possible, according to the requirements of Article 11, before the commencement of the PPO, shall submit a certificate to the EC in accordance with Article 12.
