All eyes seem to be set on the fierce battle being fought in Lahore by the ruling PML-N and Imran Khan’s PTI over the NA-122 seat. But even as voters decide the winner on Sunday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will be tested to ensure that this time, the exercise is not marred by the same lapses that necessitated the by-election.

In the 2013 general election, the PML-N romped to a historic third time – and most comprehensive – victory. It was credited largely to the popularity of Sharif brothers in the populous province of Punjab, which is 62 per cent of Pakistan, and the incumbency factor.

Still, the PTI emerged as a third force and a potent challenge to the PML-N as it polled second largest number of votes across the country.

That election is remembered for the first ever transfer of power from a democratically elected government to another in the history of Pakistan but also for the criticism that the ECP earned for its lapses that made the results of a host of sensitive constituencies controversial.

Imran Khan challenged some results in Lahore and Karachi, and when the electoral machinery and the PML-N government took to foot dragging, he launched a street agitation that eventually led to a judicial probe into the charges of rigging and faster proceedings in the election tribunals.

Meaningful electoral reforms were logically expected to follow, and the government and the parliamentary political parties did go through the motions of negotiating them. But nothing concrete has materialized yet and the acrimony accumulating over the issue in the meantime has been in full display in the by-election campaigns and political polemics.

On its part, the ECP took some measures, but they amounted nothing more than static change in the eyes of experts and the detractors of the power-drunk PML-N.

A former senior official of the ECP thinks “the commission is acting as if in panic, taking actions which make absolutely no sense.”

For instance, he pointed that in the run up to the hotly contested by-election in NA-122, the ECP barred all members of the national and provincial assemblies from running election campaign of their parties. True, the bar is there for high public office holders, like the president, prime minister, chief ministers and ministers, but that makes sense as they hold executive powers. But can the ECP order an MNA or MPA to stay away from politics? The idea is ridiculous. It made the PTI move a court and get a stay order against the ECP because its chairman wanted to lead the party campaign.

Interestingly, taking cover of the stay, an entire army of the PML-N ministers has now joined the campaign for reelection of former speaker Ayaz Sadiq, politically humiliated by his unseating from the constituency.

Cries of the ECP that the court order allowed only MNAs and MPAs to take part in the election campaign, and not ministers, have fallen on deaf ears.

Earlier, a failure on the part of the ECP to anticipate the magnitude of the electoral process involved in the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had led to accusations of rigging and counteraccusations among the participating political parties. Staggered elections was the answer to avoid multiple casting of votes by a voter in the KP, but the ECP chose otherwise which only earned it disrepute.

Then there were the cases of the ECP not pushing the election tribunals to decide disputes brought to them within stipulated four months, and of refusing extensions to the judges who gave their rulings in favor of PTI candidates. Such behavior only strengthened the view that the commission was not impartial in its conduct.

Many political observers think that the ECP’s recent cancellation of the prime minister’s relief package for farmers wasn’t necessary. The PML-N government has challenged the action in the Supreme Court, adding another controversy to electoral politics.

Primarily, the legislators should have been held responsible for the long persisting mess. It is their job to enact proper laws for conducting elections that make their outcome unquestionable. Till then, the ECP can only operate within the flawed laws in existence, though it must assert whatever positive they offer.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2015

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