THE agreement reached by all parties in the National Assembly for the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of provisional data from the latest census is a heartening development amid the political gloom. The fact that the parties were able to come together and forge an agreement that prevents the next elections from possibly being delayed, or adversely impacted, shows that political maturity still exists, and on the key question of how power should be obtained and transferred in this country, there is consensus. The 24th Constitution Amendment Bill which empowers the delimitation exercise to be conducted under provisional results passed with near unanimity — 242 voted yes while one MNA opposed the bill. Going forward, it will be necessary to hold this rope tightly and not allow grievances arising from the census exercise to muddy the outlook on the coming elections.

The consensus will be tested once steps begin to be taken for the third-party audit. Further discussions will need to be held on selecting the third party to conduct the audit, on how the 5pc census blocks to be audited will be selected and what methodology will be used, and perhaps most importantly, when the exercise will be held. The agreement simply says that it should be done “within the next three months”, but the later it gets the less time there will be to sort out any issues that the audit throws up. Then there is also the matter of what will happen in case discrepancies in the data are found. In fact, there are several other question marks. For example, does an audit involve returning to the field or simply looking at the data brought in by the field staff and checking to see how it was processed? Will the selection process for the blocks be random? And what if none of the blocks whose results are under contention are selected for the audit?

The parties should keep their dialogue going and make an extra effort to anticipate as many of the snags the exercise could encounter as possible. As the elections draw nearer, and more crucial decisions have to be made, it will be necessary that the nascent delimitation exercise not throw up more issues. The government has shown admirable political dexterity in defusing the situation, and its agreeing to expand the sample of the auditable blocks should be welcomed. But with the consensus in place, all other parties should also show equal maturity by not turning the process into a frivolous point-scoring forum. The government should take serious note of the difficulty it had in mustering its own votes, let alone in forging the consensus. The preparation for and conduct of the elections will require much political dexterity in the future, and political parties should keep all doors open for cooperation.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017