UNDP urges poll system enjoying voters’ trust

Published January 30, 2015
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ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in an analysis on electoral reforms in Pakistan has observed that ‘appointing a new chief election commissioner and investigating the previous elections is not sufficient’.

In its quarterly policy publication released here on Thursday, it said: “Rather, there must be an accepted roadmap for achieving the status where every voter has full confidence in a free and fair process, from the delimitation of constituencies to the announcement of final results.”

The UNDP says with electoral reform high on the agenda in Pakistan and several processes already in place “it is perhaps appropriate to look at some broader examples from other nations who have gone from highly disputed electoral processes to widely accepted ones”.

Take a look: What genuine electoral reforms would look like

The policy publication says, “The Pakistan model of appointing retired judges has few parallels internationally. Several countries in Latin America and the Middle East appoint only judges but few limit them to those already retired. More common though, is the appointment of eminent public figures renowned for political neutrality with expertise in fields such as law, public administration, political science or the media.

“The constitutional obligation of appointing retired Supreme Court judges to lead the commission ensures that the pool of candidates for appointment is extremely small. Those few who are qualified may see the apex of their career behind them and do not wish to expose their legacy to the withering criticism which the post may bring.”

The analysis suggests that reformers in Pakistan should consider if the appointment of members and staff should be expanded beyond the judiciary to attract a broader pool of talented individuals from other sectors such as civil society, business or civil service. Reforms could also include mandatory retirement age along the lines of many countries.

In concert with these reforms, responsibility lies with the individual as well. Electoral Management Body (EMB) leadership must be fearless in its actions by being able to actively protect the sanctity of the electoral process without bias regardless of the political implications of their work. The presence of a committed commissioner at the helm will often do more to strengthen the commission than any amount of legislated powers.

It says that difficulty of the work of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is not to be underestimated. The ECP manages one of the world’s largest single-day electoral processes, a considerable task made more formidable by Pakistan’s unique security, development and access issues. The task is not only one of solving disputes, but also of managing thousands of permanent staff deployed across the country and hundreds of thousands of temporary election staff.

The UNDP says that independence can be compromised by budget linkages with the government. This is an area where the ECP has substantial financial powers, similar to those of the Supreme Court, the Senate and other constitutional bodies.

The ECP can charge expenditure directly to the Federal Consolidated Fund which contains all revenues collected by federal agencies. Parliament can discuss the ECP expenditure, but has no role in approving it. This budgetary power is similar to that of other electoral commissions, such as Elections Canada, and underlines the constitutional powers vested in the ECP.

The policy publication says that under existing laws, the creation and management of the polling scheme is the responsibility of the returning officer (RO) and it should not be changed less than two weeks before the polls.

Observers noted that ROs frequently flouted this legal deadline and changed polling schemes after the deadline. This left the results management system without updated information thereby creating confusion with voters and delays during the results process.

It suggests a simple change of the legislation could shift this responsibility to the district election commissioner, a permanent official of the ECP based in each district.

On the prickly issue of how to achieve electoral integrity and eliminate substantive fraud, the UNDP publication says “it is important to realise that electoral integrity should be a pre-emptive process”. It is much more difficult to ensure retroactively, or at the eleventh hour, or through tribunals and commissions of inquiry.

“The checks and balances must be integrated at the beginning, whether in the appointment procedures of ROs or the adoption of transparent results systems. The basic integrity checks such as the publication and scrutiny of electoral rolls, the clear publication of polling stations and the presence of well-trained representatives of every contesting party at every polling station is so necessary.”

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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