February 26, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 18, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: Representatives of five major political parties have expressed disappointment over the election commission’s inaction on more than 2,000 complaints which they said seriously limited the transparency and fairness of the February 18 elections.

They demanded that the commission should start consultation with all political parties to ensure that outstanding issues were resolved quickly and transparently.

At a roundtable organised by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), the party representatives also raised concerns about flaws in the electoral list, intimidation, violence and kidnapping before and on the election day, lack of adequate polling staff, changes in the polling scheme on short notice, and inadequate security to ensure a safe environment. They also questioned the ECP’s inability to announce the number of postal ballots issued.

Farzana Raja (PPP), Senator Azam Swati (JUI-F), Haider Abbas Rizvi (MQM), Barrister Zafarullah Khan (PML-N) and Umar Masood (PML-Q) spoke on the occasion.

They cited numerous examples of fake voting, ballot stuffing, missing voters and multiple registrations on the voters list, incidents of violence against polling staff, agents and observers, murder of workers, involvement of nazims in manipulating voting, role of intelligence agencies, shortage of election staff and unexplained delay in reporting some election results.

Despite the security threat, they all agreed that party workers and voters alike dared to come out in large numbers and voiced their opinion through the ballot.

The parties developed recommendations to improve the electoral process including the need to resolve election petitions in the legally prescribed time.

They stressed that the election commission should ensure that the notification of returned candidates was issued without delay. Sessions of the assemblies should be called immediately thereafter the Nadra database should be used to verify accuracy of the voters lists. The revised lists should be made readily available to political parties and civil society for review prior to finalisation of the lists.

They said the EC should be responsible for informing voters in which polling station and polling booth they should vote. It should also provide each candidate with the exact number of postal ballots printed and issued for their constituency before election.

The MQM and PML-Q agreed that where women were barred from voting, the election should be declared null and void. PPP and PML-N demanded an inquiry where such incidents had occurred.

The PPP and the PML-N also reiterated their demand to suspend local governments during the election period, adding their concerns about the interference of nazims had proved correct.