ISLAMABAD: A key impediment to the swift conduct of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is likely to be removed after the provincial government indicated that it would not insist on the introduction of biometric voting mechanism in the upcoming polls on the grass-roots level.

A senior Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) official told Dawn on Wednesday that while the commission had not been formally conveyed this sentiment; a recent statement by the KP local government minister indicated that a summary would soon be moved to the chief minister, seeking approval to go ahead with the polls without biometric capabilities.

He said the KP government had also removed anomalies pointed out by the ECP in the local government rules it had to frame to bring them in line with the spirit of the recent law passed by the KP Assembly. The official said the commission had received the updated rules, which were one of the prerequisites for the announcement of an election schedule.

But the official clarified that even after receiving an official request asking to proceed with local elections without bothering with biometric voting there were still certain gaps that needed to be filled before the ECP could proceed with the polls. Anomalies in at least 250 census blocks had also been identified and the KP government had been asked to remove them before moving forward.

Provides updated rules, won’t insist on biometrics; delimitation and census anomalies still remain

He said the delimitation notice was also one of the prerequisites and the KP government could send a formal request to the commission for holding LG polls after completing the necessary work.

He hoped that after addressing the discrepancies, a fresh notification of delimitations would be sent to the commission by the end of November, paving the way for the announcement of election schedule by January 2015.

He said the commission would need around four months to conduct local government elections and it would still be possible to hold elections by the end of March if all due diligence was completed before the end of November.

He said that since no procurement of biometric machines even for Ghazi tehsil would be involved, the dates previously indicated by the commission for the exercise were still valid.

He said that the ECP had not been asked in writing to hold the LG elections in KP in three phases, but it had been verbally discussed that the provincial government wanted polls in urban, rural and hilly areas with gaps as suitable, owing to security reasons.

He said the commission had no objection to this, rather, it would make the ECP’s job of making arrangement a little easier.

The official also denied the impression that the commission was dragging its feet on the matter. “We will not waste a single day once all the prerequisites are in place and formal request from the provincial government is received,” he remarked.

KP Local Government Minister Inayatullah Khan could not be reached for comment, despite repeated attempts.

AMENDMENTS IN RULES: Under the updated local government rules sent to the ECP, the KP government has defined biometrics as the measurement and analysis of unique physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, for verifying and authenticating the identity of a voter.

The rules provide that the presiding officer, before issuing a ballot paper to the voter, will satisfy himself about the identity of a voter by using a biometric machine specified and provided by the ECP. The rules state, however: “Provided further that where biometric machines are not available, the presiding officer shall satisfy himself regarding identity of the voters by employing normal procedure for identification.”

According to the updated rules, the nomination form, accompanying declarations including a declaration of assets and statements shall be open to inspection by public, and returning officers will make available their copies on payment of Rs10 per page in shape of court fee stamp.

Elections to the reserved seats for women, peasants and workers, non-Muslims and youth in the tehsil, town and district councils shall be held on the basis of proportional representation.

Published in Dawn, November 13th , 2014